Goin, Dr. Lowell S., president, California Physicians Service: Voluntary plans can expand to meet the need.. Selective service figures not convincing--- Goldmann, Dr. Franz, associate clinical professor of Yale University School 611 Howard, Dr. Joseph H., president, Connecticut State Medical Society....... Jacobs, Mrs. Beatrice F., chairman of the Health and Education Committee, Kennedy, Dr. Walter V., president, Indiana Mutual Medical Care, Inc.: Endorsement of voluntary insurance. S. 1606 would involve regimentation_ Free choice is limited by S. 1606_____ S. 1606 makes Surgeon General a dictator. S. 1606 would be too expensive... Mannix, John R., chairman, Blue Cross commission of the American Peters, Dr. John P., secretary, Committee of Physicians for Improvement Page 967 NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1946 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, the Honorable James E. Murray (chairman), presiding. Present: Senators Murray, Pepper, Tunnell, Smith, and Donnell. The CHAIRMAN. The hearing will come to order. The first witness this morning is Dr. R. L. Sensenich, of South Bend, Ind. Doctor, we are pleased to have you here this morning. Would you care to make some statement about your background, the position you occupy in the American Medical Association, and so forth? Also anything else you wish to say. STATEMENT OF DR. R. L. SENSENICH, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Dr. SENSENICH. I am a physician, in the practice of medicine in South Bend, Ind., and have been for a number of years; and, by the way, if you wish my name, it is Roscoe L. Sensenich, chairman of the board of trustees of the American Medical Association. My appearance here this morning is in connection with that office. Senator Murray, in the interests of your committee, who I know are very busy, I have prepared a statement which I will ask to be placed in the record. From that I will brief some of the material which I think you might care to discuss. The CHAIRMAN. That will be satisfactory. (The statement is as follows:) STATEMENT BY AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION AT HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR, UNITED STATES SENATE, S. 1606, NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM, SUBMITTED BY DR. R. L. SENSENICH, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES The American Medical Association is an organization which includes more than 125,000 physicians who are members of the county and State medical societies. The policies of the association are determined by its house of delegates. The members of the house of delegates, numbering 175, are elected by the respective houses of delegates of the individual States, which in turn are elected by the members of the county medical societies. Thus the organization is democratic in its organization and in its functions. AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION REPORT ON S. 1606 At the last meeting of the house of delegates held in Chicago in December 1945 consideration was given to the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill (S. 1606) and 551 to the national health program presented by President Harry S. Truman in his message to the Congress on November 19. The report adopted by the house of delegates follows: "The President's program includes five features: The first is the proposal to grant Federal aid for the building of hospitals and health centers throughou the Nation. The board of trustees of the American Medical Association has ap proved the principles of the Hill-Burton bill, and the committee recommends that the house of delegates endorse this action of the board as being within the program of constructive action toward improving the health of the American people. "The second recommendation of President Truman is for an extension d maternal and child-health services. The Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill would make this effective by increased grants-in-aid through the Children's Bureau to the individual States. This constitutes an insidious attempt to turn over to the Federal Government functions that are definitely those of the medical profession. The American Medical Association has always favored proper aid for the extension of maternal and child-health services where the need can be shown. "The third feature of the President's message dealt with the development of the National Research Foundation. The Committee on Postwar Medical Service, the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals, and the board of trustees of the American Medical Association have approved the principles of the Magnuso bill, which would place the control of the National Research Foundation under a scientific board of directors rather than under an individual director to be appointed by the President. Your reference committee approves the action taken by those official bodies of the American Medical Association and urges that the house of delegates support their recommendations. "Finally, the fourth proposal of President Truman and the main feature of the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill is the creation of a Federal system of compulsory sickness insurance. In commenting on this proposal, your reference com.. mittee recommends that the house of delegates endorse the following statemet: from the editorial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. December 1, 1945: "No one will ever convince the physicians of the United States that the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill is not socialized medicine. By this measure the medical profession and the sick whom they treat will be directly under political control. By this measure the great system of private hospitals and community hospitals that have grown up in our country will depend for their continued operation on funds paid to them by a Federal Government agency. By this measure the philanthropic efforts for the care of the sick, which have been the pride of our Nation, will be forever deterred. Through this measure competent young men who would enter the medical profession will be forced to seek other fields of action still remaining under our democracy which still permits the exercise of individual initiative and freedom of thought and action. By this measure doctors in America would become clock watchers and slaves of a system. Now, if ever, those who believe in the American democracy must make their belief known to their representatives, so that the attempt to enslave med:cine as first among the professions, industries, and trades to be socialized meet the ignominious defeat it deserves.' "Your reference committee recommends that the house of delegates express its official disapproval of section 4 of the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill for the following reasons: "1. The Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill is founded on the false assumption that solution of the medical-care problem for the American people is the panaces for all of the troubles of the needy. "2. This is the first step in a plan for general socialization not only of the medical profession but of all professions, industry, business, and labor. "3. Positive proof exists from experience in other countries that inferior medical service results from compulsory health insurance. "4. A program such as outlined is enormously expensive. It will result in greatly increased taxes for the entire population of the United States. "5. Voluntary prepayment medical plans now in operation in many parts of the United States and which are rapidly increasing in number will accomplish all the objects of this bill with far less expense to the people and under these plans the public will receive the highest type of medical care." In a meeting held by the board of trustees of the American Medical Associstion in Chicago in February the following health program was adopted repre senting the objectives of the association in improving the national health: |