Committee on Education and Labor: The President's health message. The national health bill, S. 1606_ 57 Wagner, Hon. Robert F., Senator from New York-Continued Why voluntary health-insurance plans can't do the job. What the National Health Act would mean to the medical profession_ What the National Health Act would mean to hospitals... What the National Health Act would mean to veterans.. The need for health insurance__ Popular demand for health insurance. Why the plan must be national_ Statements from organizations: American Federation of Labor.. NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1946 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 a. m., pursuant to call, the Honorable James E. Murray (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Murray, Thomas, Pepper, Wagner, Taft, and Smith. Also present: The Honorable John D. Dingell, a Representative in Congress from the State of Michigan. The CHAIRMAN. The hearing will come to order. I am very sorry that we do not have a larger committee room for this meeting this morning, but owing to the use of the larger rooms by other important committees we have been compelled to take this room. I hope that we may be able to get a larger room before the hearings have ended. First, I wish to insert in the record of the hearings the President's health message, the national health bill, S. 1606, copies of correspondence between President Truman and myself relative to certain amendments proposed by Mr. William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, and, fourthly, reports on the national health bill from a number of Federal agencies, including the Bureau of the Budget, the Federal Security Administrator, and the Secretary of Commerce. (The documents above referred to are as follows:) [H. Doc. No. 380, 79th Cong., 1st sess.] MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TRANSMITTING HIS REQUEST FOR LEGISLATION FOR ADOPTION OF A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM To the Congress of the United States: In my message to the Congress of September 6, 1945, there were enumerated in a proposed economic bill of rights certain rights which ought to be assured to every American citizen. One of them was "the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health." Another was the "right to adequate protection from the economic fears sickness * * * Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection. The people of the United States received a shock when the medical examinations conducted by the Selective Service System revealed the widespread physical and mental incapacity among the young people of our Nation. We had had prior warnings from eminent medical authorities and from investigating committees. The statistics of the last war had shown the same condition. But the Selective Service System has brought it forcibly to our attention recently in terms which all of us can understand. As of April 1, 1945, nearly 5,000,000 male registrants between the ages of 18 and 37 had been examined and classified as unfit for military service. The number of those rejected for military service was about 30 percent of all those examined. The percentage of rejection was lower in the younger age groups and higher in the higher age groups, reaching as high as 49 percent for registrants between the ages of 34 and 37. In addition, after actual induction, about a million and a half men had to be discharged from the Army and Navy for physical or mental disability, exclusive of wounds; and an equal number had to be treated in the armed forces for diseases or defects which existed before induction. Among the young women who applied for admission to the Women's Army Corps there was similar disability. Over one-third of those examined were rejected for physical or mental reasons. These men and women who were rejected for military service are not necessarily incapable of civilian work. It is plain, however, that they have illnesses and defects that handicap them, reduce their working capacity, or shorten their lives. It is not so important to search the past in order to fix the blame for these conditions. It is more important to resolve now that no American child shall come to adult life with diseases or defects which can be prevented or corrected at an early age. Medicine has made great strides in this generation, especially during the last 4 years. We owe much to the skill and devotion of the medical profession. In spite of great scientific progress, however, each year we lose many more persons from preventable and premature deaths than we lost in battle or from war injuries during the entire war. We are proud of past reductions in our death rates. But these reductions have come principally from public health and other community services. We have been less effective in making available to all of our people the benefits of medical progress in the care and treatment of individuals. In the past, the benefits of modern medical science have not been enjoyed by our citizens with any degree of equality. Nor are they today. Nor will they be in the future unless government is bold enough to do something about it. People with low or moderate incomes do not get the same medical attention as those with high incomes. The poor have more sickness, but they get less medical care. People who live in rural areas do not get the same amount or quality of medical attention as those who live in our cities. Our new economic bill of rights should mean health security for all, regardless of residence, station, or race-everywhere in the United States. We should resolve now that the health of this Nation is a national concern; that financial barriers in the way of attaining health shall be removed; that the health of all its citizens deserves the help of all the Nation. There are five basic problems which we must attack vigorously if we would reach the health objectives of our economic bill of rights. 1. The first has to do with the number and distribution of doctors and hospitals. One of the most important requirements for adequate health service is professional personnel doctors, dentists, public health and hospital administrators, nurses, and other experts. The United States has been fortunate with respect to physicians. In proportion to population it has more than any large country in the world, and they are well trained for their calling. It is not enough, however, that we have them in sufficient numbers. They should be located where their services are needed. In this respect we are not so fortunate. The distribution of physicians in the United States has been grossly uneven and unsatisfactory. Some communities have had enough or even too many; others have had too few. Year by year the number in our rural areas has been diminishing. Indeed, in 1940, there were 31 counties in the United States, each with more than a thousand inhabitants, in which there was not a single practicing physician. The situation with respect to dentists was even worse. One important reason for this disparity is that in some communities there are no adequate facilities for the practice of medicine. Another reason-closely allied with the first-is that the earning capacity of the people in some communities makes it difficult if not impossible for doctors who practice there to make a living. The demobilization of 60,000 doctors and of the tens of thousands of other professional personnel in the armed forces is now proceeding on a large scale. Unfortunately, unless we act rapidly, we may expect to see them concentrate |