Evening star., 1950-04-16
State Medicine
Costs 3 Billion
By Howord w. BIokesIee


NEW YORK.-The United
States this year is spending
nearly 3 billion tax dollars for
various forms of State medicine.
Nearly 2 billion of this is Fed
eral money, more than l billion
is from State funds.
Those entitled to some part
Of this medical care total about
one-sixth of the Nations popu-
lation, If the new census lives
UP to the $50 million forecast.
Active military forces are not in
cluded.
The great bulk Of this State
medicine is for 18.250,000 vet
Grams. They are entitled to full
care If they have service disa-
bilities. Otherwise they can
enter vet hospitals only If there
are vacant beds and they swear
they are unable to defray the
cost of private hospital care.
They are entitled to treatment
outside hospitals.
The remaining 6 to Z million
fall into special classes. There
are 2 million Federal employed.
entitled to industrial accident
care. Four hundred thousand
are Indians, with some Eskimos
and Aleuts. who come in as
Government wards.
Many Are Mental Cases
Nearly three-quarters Of a
million are the mental cases.
feeble and epileptics,
who are cared for by States in
State hospitals. They are under
custodial guard. There are also,
in the State and Federal dollar.
children and aged.
There are 40 Federal agencies
which give some medical as
sistance to employees. That
figure Is from the Hoover re-
port. Large Federal services are
the Marine hospitals and other
United States Public Health
Service activities.
Doctors working full time for
Federal or State pay total nearly
5000. That is one-twentieth
of the Nations active physi-
clans. These State doctors do
not furnish all the medical care
for tax dollars.
Any veteran can receive treat
ment by a hometown doctor,
who is q private practitioner,
provided authorization is given
by the regional director having
Jurisdiction in that veterans
case. The Veterans Administra-
ton employs about 4,200 ply
sicians, of whom about 5000 are
in veterans hospitals. About
1,1O0 provide out-patient serv-
ice and about 100 are stationed
in the general Office.
The Veterans Administration
in 1949 paid $16.500,000 to
private doctors. About $4,000
private doctors have indicated
willingness to take part in the
veterans program outside VA
hospitals.
Bill Gets Bigger
The Federal medical expense
totals include building costs.
They include numerous small
items Of aid to States. Whether
this years Federal medical bills
will be two billion or consider
ably less is in dispute. The
Hoover report sets two billion.
A United States Public Health
Service study says it might be
less than a billion-and-a- half.
The emphasis is not on the
size of this years Federal State
medicine bill, but on the fact
that it has increased about ten
fold in about 10 years.
The present tax-paid services
do not furnish an easy basis for
estimating what total State
medicine would cost in the
United States. You can't just
multiply 3 billion by six. You
could be wrong either way.
The veterans come closest to
indicating the problems to be
solved in taking on national
State medicine. that is, complete
medical care.
It took two World Wars to get
the veterans hospitals located
right. After the first war, some
were built in beautiful and re-
mote sites where it literally was
not possible to get good doctors
and still harder to get expert
consultation.
The last war changed this
radically. New vet hospitals are
located near good doctors and
close to a medical center. These
medical centers usually are
great medical teaching univer-
bsitieS.
" Distributed by the Associated press.l