Arizona sun., 1949-11-18


Part II
This the second and concluding part of speech by
Mr. Oscar Ewing Federal Security Administrator de-
vered at recent convention Of the National Association
of Retail Druggists If you failed to receive the first in
stament of this enlightening talk will be glad mail
you copy upon request-Ed
have no intention of trying to cover all the facets of
this whole complex matter of health insurance What
want focus attention the Presidents overall health
program All of efforts to build hospitals train
more DOCTORS develop medical research in the end
fall short of their purpose unless we find ways and means
to pay for these services. And pay for medical
services for ALL the people.
It is here think, that the advocates of voluntary
health insurance alternative to national health in
surance fail to grasp the whole problem. There is
doubt that voluntary insurance offers genuine ad
vantages to those who afford it, But the great
of the people simply cannot pay the high fixed premiums
that required Furthermore in order to remain sol
vent, any individual plan must eliminate the bad risks
And this cuts off the people who most need medical
Beyond this of these voluntary plans impose many
restrictions amount and nature of the services
deredfor example, no protection against maternity costs
unless the insurance has been in force for ten months
person who wants anything like full protection must either
exorbitan premium or sign up for or or more
separate policies.
Presidents proposal has sold the idea of health Insurance.
this limited basis to millions who formerly were
lean Medical Association glbly talk of 6OOOOOOO people
protected by voluntary health insurance These figures
early this year that there than million who
had full coverage. This is far from6O 600 who
nave some K1nQ OF paTCla insurance. But even II OU-
600 do have kind of voluntary insurance. what
about the 9000O000 who have none-and they probably
need medical most.
Be this it may, what getting at is that the Pres
idens health program is not simply series of isolated
recommendations 1t is carefully formulated plan of
tal if the plan to click National health insurance and
the distribution of medical purchasing power is very
important element. It is the anmang factor which gives
life and vitality to the whole project.
AS to charges that we are attempting to soclallze
mecnehs s of course the sheerest sort of nonsense
everyone knows who has taken the trouble to read the
bill before the Congress- There precisely nothing
in this bill which would in any way establish any form
of bureaucratic control the practice of medicine
this country A doctor would be the employee of
the Government that he is of of the voluntary
plans with which he is associated He would have
TALLY the kind of paper work that he does under
the voluntary insurance And he would be paid for his
services through the fund in exactly
the he is paid through the fund OF
voluntary plan.
AS a matter of fact willing to go record
saying that in the long the Presidents program will
actually PREVENT the specialization of medicine Some
of you not be that already according to the
report of the Hoover Commission there "a mil
kinds and degrees of medical from the Fed
eral Government alone. Paradoxically enough any
lance voluntary health insurance solution to this
nationwide problem of the cost of medical would,
convinced lead further down the path to govern
ment medicine.
The logic of this is spectacularly simple. AS you per-
haps know all bills before the Congress which stress
the voluntary approach to the problem lay great stress
provision for the so-called medically INDECENT at
ernment expense. On the surface this routine pro-
the medically indigent?" If limit the definition to
those who public assistance-those wholly without
means buy any necessities dodge the whole ISSUE
Sooner later have to include those families which