Medical Care for the Individual and The Issue of Compulsory Health Insurance |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ability to pay actual administrative costs advances in health American Medical American Medical Association analysis automobile average Brookings Institution budget Committee on Research compulsory health insurance compulsory insurance compulsory plans conclusion consumer units controlled costs of medical discussion doctor shortage evidence expenditures Experience since 1932 fact Federal fee-for-service basis groups health insurance bill health insurance plans health insurance program hernia hospital individual Infant Mortality Issue of Compulsory limited voluntary plans means test Medical Economics medical-care insurance medically indigent method of paying National Government national health insurance operation patient pay for medical percent persons physicians practitioner present principle problem proposal Public Affairs Institute public funds recommendations regimentation Robert Morse savings says the report selective-service statistics shortage of doctors system of health tion U. S. Children's Bureau U. S. Government Printing voluntary and compulsory voluntary health insurance voluntary insurance plans voluntary or compulsory Washington
Popular passages
Page 9 - Act— the so-called draft statistics — have been widely used to show bad health among the American people and the need for revolutionary changes in arrangements for medical care of individuals, they are unreliable as a measure of the health of the nation and cannot be used to show the extent of the medical needs of the country as a whole.
Page 15 - The principle of contributory health insurance should be the basic method of financing medical care for the large majority of the American people, in order to remove the burden of unpredictable sickness costs, abolish the economic barrier to adequate medical services, and avoid the indignities of a "means test.
Page 13 - it is apparent that the United States under its voluntary system of medical care has made greater progress in the application of medical and sanitary science than any other country . . . There is every reason to believe that these trends will continue unabated under our present system of medical care.
Page 15 - ... reports for the Government regarding their affairs" (p. 63). This, declares the report, is a form of means test Here again the authors do not consider In the least the human meaning of the matter they are discussing. A means test applied to a person to determine whether he shall receive public relief in the way of food, clothing, or medical care, not only exposes him to personal investigation but to public knowledge that he is an object of charity. The filling out of an income-tax form— no...
Page 14 - States with larger populations equal them. 2. It is apparent that the United States under its voluntary system of medical care has made greater progress in the application of medical and sanitary science than any other country. This progress is now reflected in low mortality and morbidity rates of infectious diseases and in increased life expectancy. There is every reason to believe that these trends will continue unabated under our present system of medical care.
Page 16 - The authors continually insist that "most consumer units" would have the capacity to pay for voluntary health insurance if "they would give medical care a high priority with a preference over expenditures for automobiles, alcoholic liquors, tobacco, recreation, and savings." At once, however, the authors go on to question the willingness of many consumer units to give this priority. Then, on page 187 of the report, we learn that health insurance may have to be made compulsory after all. A comparison...
Page 15 - The Medical Care Section of the Assembly unanimously agreed that "the principle of contributory health insurance should be the basic method of financing medical care for the large majority of the American people.
Page 17 - advantages" of this proposal. It is suggested, for example, that "high administrative costs" would thus not fall upon the National Government. It is true, the costs would not fall on Government but they would fall on the people who had to join insurance plans and the costs would be very high indeed under such a system. Under this Brookings proposal, the Government would of course retain responsibility for the "indigent and medically indigent...
Page 16 - Conclusions regarding the limited evidence lead to the recommendation that "the national government would be wise to leave to the individual states the question of whether compulsory health insurance is to be adopted or whether the provision of professional services is to be left in the realm of free enterprise.
Page 17 - This idea is then applied to health insurance. The State or National Governments," says the report, "could force people to give a high priority to the costs of medical care in family financing. It (the Government) can require that an individual and those dependent upon him shall be insured against the costs of medical care in a voluntary organization of his own choice.