The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-02-03
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%(hAEHRREY


we are having dUOLHef OubUuTSb
of opposition to "socialized medi-
cine" and there are signs that il
will continue for some time, with
fairly good financial backing.
The difficulty about discussing
"socialized medicine" is that there
has not yet come from the Ameri-
can Medical Association any ac-
curate definition Of the term.
Whatever organized medicine
doesn't like seems to get branded
as socialized medicine.
The Wagner Murray -Dingell bill
was so branded. / read that bill
line by line and | couldn't find any
thing to suggest that the bill pro-
posed socialized medicine.
What was promised was govern
ment help for those who cannot
afford medical and surgical treat
ment under present medical prac-
tices. That is different.
4 :. Il
Housing and medicine somehow
get into somewhat the same cate
CORY.
Private Industry" doesn't sat
isfy the needs in either field, yet
the organized forces in both fields
get red in the face when anyone
proposes that there might be way
in which government could help
those who somehow don't seem able
to help themselves effectively.
There are surgical marvels for
those who can afford to pay for
them. But they are NOT available
to those of moderate means, which
is to say wage earners, clerks,
lower-income professional people
and so on.
Here, as in many other ways,
the completely INDECENT get a bet
ter break than those whose income
is what the economists call moder-
ate.
If anyone disbelieves this | can
cite case, chapter and verse.
Many doctors, busy every hour,
just don't have time to keep
abreast of the latest medical and
surgical discoveries. The result is
that they may be anywhere from
a year to four or five years behind
science in their treatment. And
THAT is the patients hard luck.
Not too many years ago there
was terrific clamor against the gov
ernment for setting standards of
truth and purity in drugs and
foods. Pure socialism, that was
to be. Shucks, what busi-
ness did the government have in
such a field, and what did it know
1t had business enough and il
knew enough to save thousands of
lives by keeping gyps and impur-
tiles off the market. Socialized drug
and food guardianship = that's
what that is, if you want to know.
None of these things has the
slightest relationship to anything
savoring of socialization. Folks |
who don't like things have a way
of putting nasty tags on them, and
so seeking to turn minds against
them.
Police forces constitute socializ-
ed crime fighting! Want to abolish
police?
Too, it's odd, how one kind of
treatment under state con-
troll is o. X, while another isn't.
howls about state hospitals
for the mentally ill, or for tuber-
culosis victims. And there is grow
ing clamor for state help in fight
ing cancer.
But you better not talk about
state operation of hospitals for
obstetrical cases, or for everyday
Most hospitals are endowed or
run by cities. The medical profess
ion runs a few, but by and large
The m e d ica profession hasn't
shown US how to get hospital care
for all who need it, except through |
outside help.
Take mental illness, for example.
We need and should have as many
hospital beds for the mentally i'll
as for those physically ill. But you
try and find them! They are not
here. Nor will they be there, ex-
,ept through public, or state, help. |
Medical science is marching
ahead with marvellous speed. But |
The thinking of medical men, in
,he realm of economics, is half |
century behind the times.
Finally, which is more import
ant: General good care and good
health, or the sacred precincts of