Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-06-10
By CROSBY s. MOVES

By CROSBY s. MOVES
European Correspondents Of The Star
LONDON. President Kennedy's
proposals for Federal medical care
for the aged-and the debate they
have provoked-take on a rather
odd perspective when viewed from
here.
It's little like looking at some
thing through the wrong end of
q telescope. In a country where
"socialized medicine" has been an
official institution and a way of
life for II years, the administra.
TONS mediocre" plan seems like
ludicrously small potatoes. And,
conversely, the amount of breast
beating and hair-tearing that this
plan has provoked is almost in
comprehensive to Europeans.
The reason is, of course, that
when it comes to socialized medi-
cine, the United States and Brit
ain are at exactly opposite poles.
The United States today, COM
pared to other industrialized
countries, is among the most med
ically "unsocialized" in the world.
In Britain, since the National
Health Service went into effect in
July. 1913, medicine has been a
government monopoly on a scale
unmatched by any country Of the
free world.
In fact, when it comes to treat
ing medical care as a public re-
sponSibility, the United States is
not just IL years behind Britain
but more than so years behind.
What Mr.. Kennedy is proposing
to do under his medicare plan
is very considerably less radical
than the compulsory medical in
surance scheme set up in Britain
under a Liberal Government in
1911 - a scheme which covered
nearly so per cent of the popula-
ton when the National Health
Service replaced it in 1913.
Comparisons With u. S.
Given such immense differences
in background, analogies and
comparisons between the British
and American systems are hard
to draw. Nevertheless, for IL years
a system has existed in Brit
ain which represents "Socialized
medicine" in its most extreme
form. The way this system works,
the results it has produced. the
mistakes that have been made
and the criticisms raised all have
significance in terms of the prob
lens facing American medicine
today.
The first fact which is impressed
on anyone who looks at the Ma
tional Health Service today is that
it is here to stay. Like any program
closely tied up with politics, the
health service has its passionate
supporters and loud critics.
There are some who question the
achievements of the system and
many who complain about GER
tain aspects of the way it works.
There are very few, however,
who believe that the system can
or should be scrapped. In 1948, a
poll of British doctors showed
that nearly 80 per cent were
against the health service plan.
Ten years later, Lord Moran,
Sir Winston Churchill's personal
physician, wrote that 'if consult
ants were asked whether they de-
sired to go back to the old days,
I believe the overwhelming major
ity would prefer the conditions of
today"
What applied to the doctors has
applied even far more universally
to their patients. Today almost
any Briton in the street will cite
the National Health Service i'm
mediately as one of the chief
blessings Of living in the country.
To a remarkable extent, the serv-
ice has become a matter of ma
tional pride something which
sets Britain off from less fortu-
nate countries-w while the idea of
"free medical care" has become
the cornerstone of the average in
dividuaIs personal sense of Sc
curity.
Politically Safe
The result is that the health
service is and is likely to remain
politically sacrosanct. The Con-
sentative Party, when it returned
to power in 1851, dismantled
many of the socialist" measures
of the Labor government, includ-
ing the naturalization of a num-
Der Of major industries. No one
at the time, however, seriously
considered laying a finger on the
health service. And no political
party would dream of doing so
today.
Nor is this simply proof of the
argument that any national
health plan, once adopted, is in
evitably self-perpetuating. Aus
tralia, for example, set up a sim
liar health service after the war
and scrapped it a few years later
after a change of government.
The success of the British plan
depends on a widespread convic-
ton that it is basically sound
approach to the health problems
of the country.
This success can be measured
by the fact that in system under
which participation is voluntary
on the part Of both doctors and
patients, there are almost no
holdouts.
More than 81 per cent of the
population of 81 million are en-
rolled in the health service. So are
about SO per cent Of the $4,000
practicing physicians in the
United Kingdom, along with al
most all opticians, dentists and
druggists. With the exception of
a few hospitals run by religious
- L,