Evening star., 1944-02-27
Prepaid Health Insurance
Debate Gaining in Warmth
Opponents Charge Effort to Regiment Physicians
While Proponents Cite Success of
Program in Britain
Bv Edscard A. Harris

! Usher Frank Gannett, has sent out
| frantic appeals to oppose the bill, in
envelopes stamped with the boldface
warning: Menace of Senator Wagner's
Political Medicine Bill Exposed. See
| ANA Resolutions, inclosed. Your Help
| Needed"
Opponents Are Sincere.
Physicians opposing the measure are
sincere in their opposition. Conversely,
| it is equally true that some doctors
within the ANA favor the legislation
and look with genuine despair upon the
| character of campaign being conducted
| to beat it.
Physician-proponents of the bill have
been largely unorganized and ineffec-
tual. But they are making an attempt
to make their views known. The gen.
eral principles Of the bill have been in
dorsed by the Committee of Physicians
for the improvement of Medical Care,
Inc, national liberal group formed in
1886, headed by DR.. Charming Frothing-
ham of Harvard Medical School. And
the Physicians Forum for the Study of
Medical Care small group, has pub
lished pamphlet in question-an an
swer form telling citizens what their
health benefits would be if the legisla-
ton is passed.
DR.. Ernest P. Boas, chairman of the
Physicians Forum, has been outspoken
In criticism of organized medicine S
con tN l.;
is an accepted fact he said a few
weeks ago. that a large proportion Of
the population does not receive ade-
quate medical care, and that methods
! OF distributing medical care are unSatis-
factory and often too expensive. These
matters concern all the people and their
Government, not doctors alone.
Unfortunately, in recent years the
ANA has led the profession into a
moraSS Of befuddled and dishonest
thinking. Its actions and pronounce
ments have been guided solely by eco
nomic self-interest, with a desire to
maintain at all costs the medical status
quo for the benefit of those doctors who
have reached positions of power and
financial comfort. This is true of the
Murray Wagner Dingell bill, as it was
true Of its opposition to the Group
Health Cooperative of Washington,
D. c." That opposition, it will be
recalled, led to the conviction of the
ANA as a monopoly, upheld last year
by the United States Supreme Court.
The sponsors of the bill also have
taken up their cudgels in defense of
the measure. Senator James E. Murray
has accused the ANA of issuing propa-
ganda that misrepresents the bills pro-
visions, and has denounced in blunt
language the statements in the NPC
leaflets that the bill would make doc
tors political stooges and henchmen
instead of self-respecting beings" Sem
ator Wagner has called the publics at
tention to the finding of the Physicians
Forum that the measure is the most
realistic legislation yet proposed for
improving the quality and distribution
of medical service on national scale"
The authors of the legislation point out,
too, that both the CIO and AFL have
indorsed it Fundamentally.
Cite Shifting Position.
Advocates Of the bill also assert that,
although organized medicine for many
years fought private medical prepay
ment plans, it is now resorting to q
more sympathetic stand on such pro-
posals as means of checkmating Gov
| ernment health insurance. Whatever
the motives, the NPC board of trustees,
at its annual meeting in Chicago last
November, did go on record as favoring
industry sponsored prepaid health in
Surance.
Generally, the measure is designed to
give all workers and their dependents
including about IS per cent of the popu-
lation-financiaI protection against the
risks of sickness and disability. Families
would be able to select their own
physicians. In addition, specialist and
laboratory services would be made avail
able to all insured persons, and hos
pitalization would be provided up to 30
days a year.
The program would be open to all
licensed physicians and qualified hos
pltals, but no doctor would be forced to
participate. Persons needing assistance
with medical expenses but not covered
under terms fthe bill could be quail
Continued on Page C-3, Column 81