Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-05-19
The American Farm Family Is Now Enjoying the
CoMenien(es and Benefits Of Prepaid Hospital
Care Through Blue Cross Hospital Service Plans
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

10y LLN1O oNO1 WA ooAN
Released by Western Newspaper Union.
This is the story of "the fast
i est growing movement in
the country"-one that is adding
to the health and peace of mind
of millions of Americans. Seven
years ago there were fewer than
100000 of those Americans. To-
day there are more than IA ,000,-
000-more than one-tenth of our
whole population-and it's like
ly that by the end of the year
that number will have risen to
100000.
This movement is group hos
pital insurance which, under the
stimulation of wartime condi-
tions, has become a 500, 000,0 900
year business. And, as the re-
suit of the Blue Cross Hospital
Service plan, sponsored by the
American Hospital association,
Mr.. John @. Citizen, one of these
100000, has the assurance
that, should illness or accident
make hospital care necessary
for him or some member of his
family, his pocketbook will not
be suddenly and dcvastatingly
depleted. And the peace of mind
which comes from the assur-
ance of that fact has been pur-
chased by John @. at an aver
age cost of less than five cents
day!
However, the significant fact
about this story for readers of this
newspaper is that the group hos
pital service plan has spread to the
rural areas of the nation and is
rapidly becoming as common as it
has been in metropolitan centerS. Of
course, it has always been true that
farmers and members of their fami-
lies get sick or have accidents just
as do factory workers. The same is
true of employees of business firms
in villages and small towns. In
fact, both classes need help and
often are less able to pay hospital
bills than are the middle class or
low-income groups in the big cities.
So there was quite as much reason
for their having the benefit of low
cost planned and "prepaid' hospital
care as for their city cousins having
it. The principal reason why they
didn't get it sooner lay in certain
factors which are the very heart
of the planned hospital care idea. Of
those factors the word group" is
the key.
First of all, enrolment of men,
bers in such plan has to be through
groups and these groups have to be
large enough SO that, as in any in
surance of this one type, their men,
bers are good risks" With the popu-
lation so scattered in rural areas, it
seemed that it would be almost i'm
possible either to enroll people or
to make collections from them. 1t
seemed also that groups would be so
small and so few that each sub
scriber would be in effect an "indi-
ViduaP' subscriber, hence a hazard
Gus risk. Then, too, it was believed
that the people of rural America,
especially farmers, are such indi-
that they could not be enrolled in
disqualification groups large enough
to be self-sustaining.
Comes the Blue Cross
For these, and other, reasons the
earliest plans for hospital care
were concentrated in the big cities
where large industries, whose en-
ployees were numbered by the thou
sands, offered the best opportunity
for handling such insurance on a
group basis. Then came the organ-
cation of the Hospital Service Plan
commission of the American Hospi-
tai association to sponsor the blue
Cross" movement. "Blue Cross is
a general term which Identifies the
II group plans for hospital care
which meet the standards of COM
munity service, professional spon-
sorship, non-profit organization and
financial solvency and which have
been approved by the American Hos
pital association.
Not only did the Blue Cross move
ment expand the planned hospital
care idea in the cities but it was
chiefly responsible for its moving
out into the country" 1t spread to
the smaller cities and towns first and
then out to the farms. It's true that
farmers are independent thinkers"
but, as one of the pioneer workers
in the rural field has stated, they
are also "shrewd buyers and are
quick to take to something once its
value has been proved" So now
farmers are being enrolled through
banks, with which they do business
and which are willing to cooperate,
through their farm bureaus, their
oranges, their farmers unions, CO.
operatives, creameries, and other
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