Flyer, "American Medicine Replies to President Truman"

American Medicine Replies to President Truman A Doctor's Diagnosis of the President's Compulsory Health Insurance Program By DR. ELMER L. HENDERSON NATIOTIAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS Chairman, Board of Trustees, American Medical Association U. SERVICE President Truman's special message, asking enactment of believes the American people will sign a blank check for such a National Compulsory Health Insurance Program, deserves an ambiguous program. The people will want to be shown. most careful scrutiny both by Congress and by the American There are many fallacies and misstatements in the Presi- people, whose health would be seriously endangered if this dent's message, some of which cannot go unchallenged. Old World scourge is allowed to spread to our New World. There is neither hope nor promise of progress in this system President Truman, for example, is about a decade behind of regimented medical care. It is the discredited system of the times in his statistics on the growth of the Voluntary decadent Nations which are now living off the bounty of the Health Insurance Systems. American people-and if adopted here, it would not only jeopardize the health of our people, but would gravely endan- PRESIDENT'S STATISTICS TEN YEARS ger our freedom. It is one of the final, irrevocable steps to- OUT OF DATE ward State Socialism-and every American should be alerted He reports that only 3,500,000 people have insurance to the danger. which provides adequate health protection. Ten or 15 years ASSEMBLY-LINE MEDICAL MILLS ago that was true. Today, Mr. President, 55,000,000 Amer- icans are protected, under the Voluntary Health Insurance Adoption of a system of politically-controlled medical Systems of this country, against the costs of hospital care, practice, as recommended by President Truman, would turn and 37,000,000 policyholders are insured against surgical or back the clock of medical progress in this country 50 years! medical bills. The inevitable deterioration in the quality of care which Again, the President falls into the error of stating that only would result from government-herding of patients and doctors limited, inadequate health protection is available under the into assembly-line medical mills would lower the standards of Voluntary Health Insurance Systems. Actually, the voluntary healthy America to those of sick, regimented Europe. systems are providing better coverage today than any compul- One of the great dangers in political diagnosis of the sory program yet proposed-at about half the price. health needs of the people is the temptation to over-simpli- President Truman also makes the amazing assertion that fication. President Truman has fallen into this error. adequate medical care is now beyond the means of all but The President sets forth an objective which all of us can the upper income groups. On the contrary, any family warmly endorse-namely, bringing adequate health services which can afford a package of cigarettes a day, or a weekly within the reach of all the people. The doctors of America, movie, can afford the finest kind of prepaid medical and in cooperation with the prepaid medical and hospital care plans hospital protection. The cost is about the same. and the many splendid Voluntary Health Insurance Systems, have made great progress in achieving that objective, so we THE FALLACY OF "NEEDLESS DEATHS" have no quarrel with the President on that score. President Truman, however, proceeds from a desirable ob- The most serious misstatement in the President's message- jective to a highly-undesirable proposal for achieving that and one which it is regrettable any President of the United objective. There is a great deal of double-talk in the Presi- States would have uttered-is the repetition of that now com- dent's message, but what he actually proposes is a National pletely discredited statement that tens of thousands of persons Compulsory Health Insurance System which would regiment die needlessly in this country, due to lack of medical care. doctors and patients alike under a vast bureaucracy of political The President, in this instance, as in others, undoubtedly administrators, clerks, bookkeepers and lay committees. based his statement on the distorted report of the Federal Security Administrator, whose listing of "needless deaths" EXORBITANT PAYROLL TAXES included 40,000 deaths from accidents and 115,000 from cancer and heart disease. Every wage-earner, every self-employed person and every employer would be compelled to contribute exorbitant pay- It is shocking that any government department head roll taxes, eventually mounting to a tax of 8 or 10 per cent would seek to impose on the credulity of the American on every paycheck, to support this system-and the cost of people with such flagrant misrepresentations-and it is un- medical care, instead of being reduced, would be doubled fortunate, indeed, that the President of the United States and trebled by bureaucratic overhead. The record is clear should have repeated, even in part, the misinformation con- in every country where Compulsory Health Insurance has tained in this report. been adopted. It is cheap in quality, but extravagantly high in price. AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE MEETING THE PROBLEM The President's message, in some respects, was persuasive -THE AMERICAN WAY! and disarming. The ideals and objectives were stated in glow- There is a very real need in America for the budgeting of ing terms, but the message was completely lacking in any spe- medical costs and American medicine is proud of the part it cific statement of the services to which the people would be has played in building the Voluntary Health Insurance Sys- entitled, or any estimate of the taxes which they would be tems to meet that need. There is no need, however, for com- compelled to pay. pelling the American people to join a Government system. A BLANK CHECK-FOR WHAT? The voluntary way is the American way-and the people will resolve this problem, in a very short span of years, under the Mr. Truman has been too long away from Missouri, if he voluntary systems now available to them. NATIONAL EDUCATION CAMPAIGN, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, One North La Salle Building, Chicago, Illinois WB49 117