The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-05-13
AUTO UNION PIONEERS
IN MEDICAL CARE PLAN
UNDER HEALTH EXPERT

these Detroit. members"
"We found" Becker says, "that
81 per cent of the workers founo
medical costs difficult to meet. Oh
the workers who felt they needed
some kind of medical care, Al pei
cent had never seen doctor about
the condition. The top worry OF
these workers was how to support
their families if they fell sick
Then, they were worried how they
would meet medical bills. These
are the areas of insecurity to which
union planning must give top prior
Iity."
The union plans to fight hard for
an employer-financed, jointly adj
ministered fund to set up a medi-
cal care program for auto work
ers. Insurance schemes under-writ-
ten by commercial companies and
providing solely for cash grants are
not the practical or democratic an
swer to the workers needs. Under
such schemes, the worker bears
most Of the burden of the cost, with
the employer in many cases re-
ceiving the dividends" Becker be-
lieves.
The American Medical Assn and
ESPECIALLY its extremet fright wing"
which wants to keep the old-time
methods Lof medical practice, in
which isolated doctors charge fees
for service when a person gets
sick enough to need doctoring, has
been cunning for Becker for years.
Only last year, a Congressional
committee Investigating "propa-
ganda in executive agencies" called
him on the carpet for his activities
in the Cooperative Health Fedora
tion of America, in Group Health
Assn, and for taking part in a
Health Workshop sponsored by the
Farmers Union, AFL, CIO, and
railroad brotherhoods in North Da-
kota, State medical association en-
ployes were the witnesses. Becker
and all of the others charged with
"propagandazing" for the Wagner
Murray-Dingell health insurance
bill refuted the charges.
In the process, though, Becker
managed to tell the Congressman
in few sentences why he's such a
strong supporter of a health pro
gram that would care for all of the
people, where they need it and
when they need it. After the for
NAL "inquisition," Becker asked for
a few minutes to talk to the Con-
gressmen.
81 started out on my first job as
county poor commissioner in King
man County Kansas" he related. 81
was incharge Of public welfare
down there, and / saw what hap
pened when they did not have
medical care. saw mothers die
and | had to place the children in
foster homes. | tried to get money
for them and the county didn't have
the money and ] couldn't get money
for them.
81 have seen mothers die | have
seen deliveries without doctor,
and husbands deliver them, and |
have seen the mothers die a few
days later. | had to place the chill
dren in foster homes-and we had
more than we could care for. !
had to sit there and reject more
cases than | accepted, and | have
seen those children not ge care
have gone thru the institutions for
the feeble-minded and have seen
children in those institutions who
could be helped. really believe in \
this thing"
Not only does Harry Becker be-
lieve in good health for every last
person in this country. He thinks !
that the program that the Uuited
Auto Workers is now shaping may
well serve as a strong link between
the present chaotic state of medi-
cal care-good, bad and indifferent |
and the day when it will be taken
for granted that it is a response !
bility for a democratic government
to start off each of its children /
with a healthy strong body just as
the Gl babies were during the war. /
Combine YOUR vacation with ed /