The people's voice., 1957-07-05

in report of the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare. In
practice, only 81 in every 81 was ac-
tually insured. The proportion of the
medical bill insured differs widely
for individual families. For a FORUM
ate few, all or nearly all the expense
is covered. For far larger number,
the insurance proves to be negligible
or zero.
In 1952-53, half a million families
had medical bills exceeding their en-
tire annual income. About eleven per
cent of all families accounted for 43
per cent of the charges for personal
health services. A sixth of the ma
tion's families were in debt for hos
pital and medical services. The situa-
ton is almost certainly worse today.
Ironically, many of our friends
abroad regard the United States as
an "underdeveloped area" for public
health insurance. Forty-five countries
had public health and maternity in
surance programs in 1866 compared
with % in 1885. Such insurance has
long been accepted as routine in the
Scandinavian countries and Western
Europe.
The American Medical Association
often points to the growing pains of
the British National Health Service
as signs of failure. But U. S. NEWS
AND WORLD REPORT, rounding up
British doctors complaints in its is
sue of April 9, commented that you
seldom meet anyone who advocates
an end to the program. A Gallup |
Poll bears this out. Last summer, af-
ter ten years of the present system,
80 Britons gave the service favor
able rating for every four who were
At the same time, Brit
ish general practitioners were asked
they would now favor start
ing the program if the choice were
open; 81 per cent of the doctors said
they would favor starting the pro-
gram, against 81 per cent who would
not.
Too many of us have been lulled
by the dulcet assurances of the
ANA, sedulously circulated by the
advertising talents of Madison Ave
nue., that voluntary plans will take
care of all our health needs. The
wish fosters the belief that rising
costs will soon be covered by the
spreading umbrella of voluntary
health insurance.
The truth is that the umbrella SIM
,ly is not big enough, cannot spread ;
is protection fast enough, is too thin,
md has too many holes to do the job.
n fact, there is no single canopy of
oluntary health insurance. What we
ave in operation is a multitude of
iversified insurance plans, only part
Y co-ordinated. There is no possibility
hat these separate systems could
omehow coalesce into a generally
canopy without creating
1tolerable overlaps and incredible
vaste.
To say that voluntary insurance has
OF solved and is not likely to solve
ne problem of insuring good medical
are for everyone is not to belittle or
eny it's positive contributions. Vol :
ntary health insurance has shown \
lat risk-sharing and prepayment are !;
,asible. Within it's limited availability q
nd the fine print restrictions in the :
voluntary health insurance +
as helped millions of people to meet !,
ost of their capitalization expenses "
nd some of the expenses of surgery. =
ut about a third of our population .
ill does not have even the most COM "
on type of protection, hospital-ex- i,
ense insurance. Only eight to ten !,
illion Americans have major medi- i
Il expense insurance that covers the u
ell-named "catastrophic' illnesses ;;
Id even for these people there are
any individual exclusions of types of
SKIS. as we'll as dollar-maxima and p
me-limits to the insurance protec- a.
on. ~
Vigorous opposition by leaders of - !!
ganized medicine has retarded the IL
read of group clinics and insurance -
ans designed to give comprehensive
epaid protection. Only some five ST