Evening star., 1945-12-09

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practice in the United States-the far
reaching Wagner-Murray- -Dingell bill,
introduced following President Truman's
message to Congress on national health
on November 10.
This legislation in effect, would set up
q system of compulsory health insurance
met by deductions from pay envelopes.
1t seeks to improve the national health
by making medical service available to
all the people-to spread over the popu-
lation the inestimable values of medical
progress over the past generation.
The organized medical profession OF
the United States has itself made great
advances in this direction and it is aware
of the hurdles and pitfalls better than
any other group-for it is constantly
coming in contact with them.
The association following instructions
from it's House of Delegates meeting in
Chicago last week, is hard at work on
prepayment sickness-insurance plan
which, its members feel, will confer
every real benefit likely to come from
the national legislation now proposed,
will be more practical and will keep the
profession free of lay-and they fear,
political-direction and interference.
Fathered by d. C. Society.
This decision by the medical associa-
ton is largely due to the efforts of the
Medical Society of the District of Co.
lumbia, one of the most progressive
groups in organized medicine, which es-
sentially framed the resolution adopted at
Chicago. 1t is difficult to predict the
lines the national plan will follow. Pro-
posed setups have been submitted by
several State societies.
There are certain elements in the
broad picture of medical care which are
responsible for the greatest hardships to
the individual-such as hospital bills,
surgical bills and obstetrical bills. There
are already efficient schemes of hospital
insurance, largely under private auspices.
Memberships are growing as the bene-
fits are better appreciated, and there
appears to be little room for change ex-
cept for improvements in details. Need
for major surgery is clearly catas-
ably accurate statistical tables can be
framed on which to base insurance
costs. With those taken care of, the
physicians believe, perhaps the biggest
element of the problem will be solved.
There still remains a vast, uncovered
field in which, it is presumed, the men
at work on the national plan will pro-
ceed cautiously, by system of trial and
error, rather than by broad applica-
tion of untested ideas such as is indi-
Gated by the bill now before Congress.
Doctor Wants to Be Free.
The American doctor wants to remain
free He believes that his freedom in
the past has been one of the greatest
factors in building up the finest medical
service anywhere in the world. He be-
lieves that no discipline imposed from
outside will approach in effectiveness
the discipline of its own members, by
organized medicine and the self-disci-
pline of the members themselves. But
also he is thoroughly devoted to the
extension of the best medical service to
all the people in the most effective way
possible.
Both. the physicians and the Govern
ment face one of the most complicated
social questions imaginable. Compared
to sickness insurance, such complex
problem as unemployment insurance is
simple. No other field in the past has
been less susceptible to socialization. 1t
has seemed somewhat like socializing
music, art or poetry. AS one physician
remarked: Insurance against sickness is
like newspaper insuring itself against
ever being scooped.
Like every large body, the American
Medical Association has its right, left
and center. These are expected to work
out their differences in the numerous
conferences which will be necessary be-
fore workable plan is adopted to take
the place of that proposed by the Gov
ernment.
Trend Toward SociaIizing.
The fight is not against "socialized
medicine This is complete misnomer,
says DR.. Roger I. Lee of Boston, newly
elected president of the American Med
ical Association. Medicine has grown
more and more "socialized" for the past
century-largely through the efforts of
the physicians themselves. Every pub
lice health department, every public
school clinic, every State or municipal
hospital, is a manifestation of $50
cialized medicine"
Instead, the battle is against political
medicine" There is an infinite differ
ence between the two, DR.. Lee says.
There are certain medical and public
health services which can be rendered
almost mechanically by any conscien-
tious, qualified individual. Such, for ex-
amples. are general innoculations in
the face of an epidemic. X-raying of the
chests Of school children, fortifying de-
ficient foods with essential vitamins.
Medical societies everywhere have
fought for these things. They have
played. perhaps, the principal part in
making the American people the health
lest In the world. There could be no
finer case for such work than the ex-
perience of the Army and Navy in the
war. The sickness rate from COM
municahle diseases was reduced to a
point where it was almost inconse-
quential, although it has been one Of
the major problems in al past wars.
The doctors have no quarrel with the
creation by society of an environment
conducive to health, and both national
and local societies constantly are ad-
vocating new activities. In this field
medicine is an exact science. Individ-
uals can be dealt with en- masse, for one
does not vary one iota from another.