Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
4525634
label
Michigan Hospital Association Convention, Grand Rapids, MI, November 7, 1949
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
4525634
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Michigan Hospital Association Convention, Grand Rapids, MI, November 7, 1949
citationUrl
collections
Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Speeches
subjects
Health
Hospitals
Legislation
iiifBase
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
4525634
coverageEndDate
logicalDate
1949-11-30
month
11
year
1949
coverageStartDate
logicalDate
1949-11-01
month
11
year
1949
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
url
mediaId
72a6a8ecbce872e1
ocrText
The original documents are located in Box D13, folder "Michigan Hospital Association
Convention, Grand Rapids, MI, November 7, 1949" of the Ford Congressional Papers:
Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
address by Representative Herold R. Ford yr
annual Courh Convention Banghret of Michigan not 7, 1949 Hospital Panklend association Hotel Hand Rapid mich
AN frither Federal Intervation
In the Juld of medical Aernis
What is the federal government doing now in the medical
services field?
1
It spends nearly $2 billion a year for everything from
hospital construction to direct treatment of patients by salaried
doctors.
The Hoover Commission reports that no less than 46 different
government agencies provide some sort of medical services. The
Veterans Administration accounts for 61 per cent of the total,
and the armed services make up more than half of the remainder.
The balance is divided between the Federal Security Agency,
Agriculture Department, Atomic Energy Commission, Interior
Department, Justice Department, and 37 others.
More than 85 per cent of all expenditures are for direct
medical care. The remainder is divided between public health
work, research, training and administration, Research accounts
for less than 4 percent of the total .
- 1 -
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD #
Digitized from Box D13 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
The Hoover Commission estimates that the federal
government is obligated to provide varying degrees of direct
medical care to 24 million persons, including more than 18.5
million veterans. At one extreme are upwards of 3 million
members of the armed forces and their dependents, merchant
seamen, and lesser groups who receive almost complete medical
care. At the other extreme are the two million federal
employees who receive care only for industrial accidents and
outpatient service of the industrial hygiene type.
The Veterans Administration has an average daily
patient load in its own hospitals of almost 120,000, plus
20,000 in other hospitals, 4 million receiving outpatient
treatment in its own facilities, and 1.5 million receiving
such care on a fee basis through the VA's home-town medical-care
program.
It treats all veterans with service-connected disabilities
and in addition will treat veterans with non-service-connected
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
- 2 -
disabilities if it has a bed available and if the veteran
swears he can't afford private treatment. Its domiciliary
facilities care for veterans who are unable to work but who have
a disability requiring a minimum of medicalcare. Most of these
are the older veterans of World War I and prior wars.
The Public Health Service spends about $165 million a
year in grants to states, research, and direct treatment of
patients. It operates 28 hospitals in addition to medical-
relief stations, furnishes medical services to the Coast Guard
and Maritime Commission, and provides miscellaneous services
to other federal agencies. Principal beneficiaries are merchant
seamen and members of the Coast Guard.
There are a wide variety of state-aid programs administered
by the Public Health Service. Besides general grants to the
states, there are grants specifically for venereal diseases,
tuberculosis, other communicable diseases, mental illnesses,
cancer, heart diseases, dental diseases, and hospital construction.
FORD
- 3 -
Some of the grants are matched by state money; some are not.
Some are in the form of assignment of federal personnel,
demonstrations, consultative services, training programs, and
direct operations by the Service with the approval and
cooperation of state and local authorities.
States use the grants for a wide variety of purposes.
These include strengthening of the state health department
or aid to local health departments, state industrial hygiene
services, state public health laboratories, diagnostic services,
and nursing services. Frequently the federal grants are inter-
mingled with state or local funds to provide direct treatment
for patients with venereal disease, tuberculosis, mental
disease, or other ailments. Every federal aid program provides
that any person, regardless of economic status, is entitled to
diagnosis and immediate treatment.
The Public Health Service conducts extensive research through
the National Institutes of Health, including Institutes for
cancer, experimental biology and medicine, heart, dental
FORD i LIBRAR GERALD
- 4 -
research, microbiology, and mental health.
Most federal medicalresearch is done by the Public
Health Service and the armed forces. But it is also carried
on by the VA, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Atomic
Energy Commission, the Children's Bureau, the Agriculture
Department, and other agencies. The Children's Bureau also
operates a grant-in-aid program to the states for the treatment and
care of crippled children.
NURSES Veterans Propitals
In addition to the vast expenditures presently being
made there is, as you know, considerable agitation for new
programs of various sorts. They ran the gamut from medical
research proposals to grants-in-aid to states to the
Administration's proposal for prepaid compulsory health
"
4
insurance, the latter more commonly known as socialized medicine.
I think that a realistic aporaisal of the medical services
situation in Washington would lead one to believe that there
- 5 -
FORD & LIBRARY DERALD
is a growing trend toward federal participation in this field.
Some proposals have undeniable merit but others, in my
estimation, would be a serious stride away from the American
concept of free enterprise and democracy.
It might be interesting to list the various medical
research proposals that have had some Congressional attention
during the past session. The Senate approved on March 18,
1949 a National Science Foundation. This bill includes medical
and biological research and authorizes grants for scholarships
and graduate fellowships. A number of bills, including one
of my own, have been introduced for the establishment of a
Multiple Sclerosis Institute in the Public Health Service.
These proposals would authorize the necessary expenditures
for the necessary research. Hearings have been held before a
House subcommittee and some action may be forthcoming next
session.
Congress in the past and at the present is concerned
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
- 6 -
with cancer research. This Congress in the last session had
bills before it requesting the President to mobilize "the
world's outstanding experts in a supreme endeavor" to find a
cure for cancer. Such legislation would authorize an appro-
priation of $100 million.
There are also bills seeking to set up a National
Cerebral Palsy Institute, a National Epilepsy Institute, a
National Arthritis and Rheumatism Institute, all under the
jurisdiction of the Public Health service. In addition there
is a proposal for further research and grants to the states
for the treatment of leprosy.
Other health proposals are chiefly concerned with aid
to individual states for health services. They include authori-
zations for appropriations to provide "basic public health
services" by local public health units. A bill has been
introduced calling for aid to states for the building of adequate
- 7 -
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
domicilary care.
All of you are quite familiar I am sure with the
Hospital Survey and Construction amendments of 1949, which
have now become law. This legislation increases the annual
authorized appropriation from 75 million to 150 million and
in addition increases the federal percentage contribution
from a flat 33-1/3 to a possible maximum of 66-2/3, depending
on per capita income of the state.
It was extremely interesting during the debate on this
proposal to see representatives who favored the basic hospital
legislation of several years ago shy away from this recent
proposal. Their objections are based on a fear that if the
federal government helps to build too many hospitals in
geographical areas that cannot financially support the necessary
day-to-day operating expenses, then the federal government
must eventually step in and run the hospitals. Once this last
- 8 -
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
step is taken then there is the danger that the United States
will have socialized medicine through the back door.
Congress can only accomplish part of the job in providing
essential hospital facilities. We in Congress can make grants
to each of the 48 states but if the respective states improperly
administer the funds made available, little benefit will result.
Politics has no place in the administration of the Hospital
Survey and Construction program. It has been, themsfore however, disap-
pointing to note that in our own State of Michigan the program
has been subjected to political influences. It is well known
that Michigan in early days of the program was making excellent
progress with the aid of the Hospital Advisory Council. It is
also a fact that a change was made in the administrative per-
sonnel set-up early in 1949 which for a time at least impeded
further progress for the state's hospital program. I regret to
note that "politics" became an influential factor in a field
- 9 -
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
where education and past experience should be the sole
criteria.
There are, in addition to the aforementioned, proposals
for federal assistance in medical and dental education. The
bills aim at setting up a Medical Education Assistance Trust
Fund with an initial appropriation of 5 million to pay tuition
and other fees of medical students, with a subsistence allow-
ance of $75 per month. Payments would be made on a loan
basis, to be repaid by the students, with 2% interest, beginning
ten years after graduation. Only college students in the top
fourth of their class would be eligible.
Medical and dental schools might also be the direct
beneficiaries of federal assistance if some plans get
Congressional approval. This kind of aid would be for the
purpose of enlarging and expanding present school facilities
and equipment.
All of you are interested in knowing what may or may not
- 10 -
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
happen to President Truman's proposal for compulsory health
insurance. This Administration measure, as I see it at the
present, will not be enacted by the 81st Congress. It did
not receive a great deal of serious consideration during the
first session. However, it will undoubtedly be put on the
legislative agenda for the coming session in 1950. Despite
the President's wholehearted support of this type of health
now
program, the 81st Congress is not ready for such far-reaching
legislation. This conflict inevitably means that the "socialized
medicine" issue will be a major battleground in the 1950
Congressional elections. It is not impossible to visualize
President Truman taking another campaign tour to stump for this
plan just as he did for other legislative "pets" in 1948.
Although I have stated that the present Congress is not
now receptive to Mr. Truman's "socialized medical plan" I do
not contend that other medical proposals of one sort or another
- 11 -
GERALD FORD LIBRART
will also be defeated; in fact, many of the previously-
mentioned programs will receive favorable attention. There
is considerable sentiment for adequate federal aid for research,
local health facilities and education. I know a number of able
representatives who are willing to go sled length for this type
of solution to the nation's health problem if such action will
defeat the compulsory method which presently is working not too
well in Great Britain.
Most of you are undoubtedly familiar with a bill intro-
duced initially in the 80th Congress by Senator Taft, whereby the
federal government would make federal grants to states on a
50-50 matching basis to enable the states to provide medical
services and medicines to the less fortunate. If the issue of
the President's proposal does reach the floor of the House,
in all probability a plan similar to Senator Taft's will be
submitted as a substitute. If it is necessary to undertake
a vast federal program in the medical services field either the
- 12 -
GERALE FORD LIBHAN,
Taft plan or the comprehensive 12-point A.M.A. proposal may be
the answer.
The threat of rigid regimentation and excessive cost
under the President's plan has had at least one salutary effect.
The general public is now convinced that better tools must be
made available. Fortunately, those that have the tools, namely,
our doctors and dentists, our voluntary health program officials,
and our elected government officials, are striving and struggling
to find an adequate solution. By a united effort toward the
common end we can achieve success.