Milford chronicle., 1953-02-20
ANOTHER BLOW TO SOCIALIZED
MEDICINE


ANOTHER BLOW TO SOCIALIZED
MEDICINE
After year of intensive study and work.
the Presidents Commission on the Health
Needs of the Nation has issued it's report.
And one thing is certain-it won't please
the advocates of SOcialized medicine or anv
variant thereof.
The report turns thumbs down on social
lzed medicine, and points to the need for re-
tanning the traditional relationship between
physician and patient. It states that the big
objective should be to further improve and
extend voluntary, privately-fnanced pre-
paid health service The small minority of
lndlgentS who are unable to pay for this
kind OF service would be given public assist
ance.
In other words, the Commission recog-
niZeS that progress should and can be made
within the present framework of private
medicine. 1t thus subStantiates, with a wealth
OF factual evidence and expert opinion, what
other observers have been saying and writing
ever since gOvernment-bOssed medicine be-
came an issue in this country. All kinds of
claims and counter claims have been made
concerning the workings of SOcialized medi-
cine IN Britain, which pretty much provided
the pattern for the last Administrations
compulsory federal health insurance scheme.
But it isn't debatable that the cost of the
British plan ran far beyond the estimates.
that 1t became necessary to again charge for
certain services which formerly had been
trea", and in many important directions
the standards of medical care suffered a
marked decline
In ShOrt-if we want better medicine for
America, socialism would be the worst, pos
slble road to take.
5000
NOT so DIFFERENT
Public opinion samplings indicate that
many OF us believe corporations earn far
greater profits than is actually the case-and
that the stockholders who own the corpora
tlons cut deep into the money that is taken
IN through sales or services. Actually. the
largest share by far-86 per cent-Of all the
income of our corporations goes to labor to
the men and women who work for them.
Profit is one of the small items in the aver
age corporations balance sheet. In a typical
year it works out to less than z cents of each
sales dollar. And not all of the profit goes
to the stockholders in dividends. In cost
cases substantial proportion of it is plow-
ed back into the business, to build and inn
prove plants which employ more labor. to
create financial reserves, and so on. In some
cases the bulk of the profit is used in this
fashion.
Finally, that part of corporation profits
which does reach the shareholders doesn't
become the property of a mysterious and
rather OminOus group of "big capitalists. !"
In late years the number of individual share
holders IN American enterprise has been
rapidly growing. Most of the shareholders
today are typical American men and women
people with average jobs and moderate in
comes. They put part of their savings in
stocks In which they have faith-iust as saw
ings are invested in bank accounts. insur-
ance policies, government bonds, or ANYTHING
else of value.
"Wall Street" isn't so different from
Main Street" after all!
5000
PUT THE BLAME WHERE IT BEL LONGS !
Because final consumer prices are exper-
fenced IN the market place-in the stores and
other retail outlets, many are inclined to
blame our economic system and business for
rising prices. We have all seen evidence of
this fact. Some time ago, for instance, when
interests were strongest and
prices were rising with extreme rapidity. |
picketed retail stores in various
communities, carrying placardS demanding
that the prices of commodities be sharply
reduced. And all kinds of producers and dis |
trlbutOrs have come in for blanket criticism. !
Moreover-and more Important idea !
has made many people enthusiastic advocates
OF price controls, on the grounds that all it |
takes to reduce prices or at least to stabilize
them is an order from political bureau.
The truth is that businesses, with few ex-
ceptlons, have been just as much the victims |
OF ln1latlOn as have consumers. To cite the
of retailing once more, store profits.
after wages and taxes and all the other ex-
penses have been paid, have actually been
running at smaller percentage levels than
was the case when prices were much lower
than now. That is also true of many manu-
facturers. Controls have served to confuse
the initiation issue and that's about all that
can be said for them. They have placed heavy
financial and administrative burdens on all |