The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-01-02
Fight For Health
THE TRUTH ABOUT GROUP
HEALTH INSURANCE

In the TWO previous dTLlcleS we
explained why group insurance is
only step-even though an i'm
portant step-in the direction of
health security. Many union lead
ers as well as doctors who are
sympathetic to unions feel that
group insurance may sometimes
do more harm than good by Great
ing false sense of security on the
part of union members, so that
they can't see the necessity for
working for something better.
What is better than group in
surance? What arrangements are
most likely to give union members
more and better protection against
illness not related to the job? The
answer has three main parts.
First, the prepayment (insur-
ance) play should pay off in medi-
cal service rather than in cash
benefits. When you get sick, you
should be assured of the services
of physicians, nurses, hospitals and
so on, instead of having to find
these for yourself, pay for them
and then collect your indemnity.
A medical service plan gives you
this assurance. Cash indemnifica-
tion policies do not. The market
in doctors, nurses and hospital
beds is tight, as we all know from
experience. And we need them
most at the very time we are
least able to get around and hunt
them, when we are flat on our
backs.
When you receive medical serv-
ice instead of cash benefits, you
don't have to worry about not col
lecting for the Doctors first few
visits, or about no longer being
covered after he has seen you a
certain number of times or after
you have run up the maximum al
lowable limit in bills. Nor do you
have to be concerned about the
fact that his fee or the hospitals
charges often are higher than the
cash indemnity to which the
policy's schedule entities you.
In other words, the payments
you make while you are still
healthy guarantee medical care for
your entire illness, from the NOM
ent it starts until you are ready
to return to work, without your
having to pay any additional fees.
Second, the services to which
members are eligible should be as
complete as possible, including
care of all illnesses without limita-
ton, the services of specialists,
home nursing care, drugs at rea-
sonable prices and dental care if
the cost is not prohibitive.
They should also include periodic
check-ups before real sickness
strikes. Preventive services, be-
sides being of the greatest value,
are often expensive, involving x
rays and costly laboratory work
ups. Group insurance does not
offer this kind of protection. You
must be sick before you are eligi-
BILE for benefits.
Third, if health protection is to
be of the highest possible type,
services should be provided by
group medical practice. In these
days of specialization, it is impos-
sible for any single doctor to know
enough or to own enough appara-
tus to practice medicine the way
it is done in the clinics and hospit-
ais connected with our medical
schools. This brand of medicine, we
are proud to say, is the best in
the world. The most any honest
family physician, practicing as an
individual, can hope to do it to
recognize when he is not suffici-
emily trained or. equipped to care
for certain patients, and refer
them to the specialists who are.
When your doctor practices un-
der the same roof with these vari-
Gus experts, you don't have to
chase all over town from one
specialists office to the other, and
the records of your chase are
available to all the physicians
whom you have consulted. They
are also able to discuss your case
with a minimum of effort. In this
way you are likely to receive
much higher quality of medical
care than the average wage-earn-
er usually gets. What's more, the
common use by the group of costly
medical equipment and auxiliary
personnel like nurses and labora-
tory technicians as we'll as sharing
of office space reduces the over
all cost.
This may sound too good to be
true, but the next article will tell
the story of one union which has
already arhieved this utopia. 1t
will also tell you and your union
what should be done so that fou
too NAV enjoy real health security.