Newspapers / The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / May 17, 1956, edition 1 / Page 9
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If , l: 11 f' Til.. ECORD t PAGE NINI " 9 ' ' 1 k-jlJ Uv.mvJ vw,ifcvv v.uwwl vU Mi.. Wilds Is Honor Student At Mars Hill High , School Below is published the essay, "The Advantages Of Privalje Medical Care," written by Misg Shirley Wilds, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Wilde, of Mar8 Hill. The es say won top honors in the state in the recent high school contest spon sored by the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina through its committee on Public Relations. The essay follows: The Advantages Of Private Medical Care 'Tie prime object of the medical Profession is to render service to humanity; reward or financial gain is a subordinate consideration." Ito my opinion, this statement from the Principles of Medical Ethics is a good basis for the arguments of private medicine. Under our system it private med' ical care, much advancement has been made and those connected with the science of medicine are still pro gressing in the medical field. Never have so many people had such good medical care as Americans enjoy today. . To render service to humani ty much medical research is being done "to promote the art and so ence of medicine and the betterment of the public health." This nation's medical progress over the past half century has given the United States the world's highest standards of health and medical care and has made it the world center of medi cal education and research. Medi cine, under the warmth of freedom, has made great advances in the pre vention and control of diseases. Dur - ing the past half century, twenty years have been added to the span v; f human life. Since 1900 the num ber of persons sixty-five years of .i-gs6r older has more than quadru pled. One reason for this shows up in the change in the leading causes of death. In 1900, infectious dis eases were the greatest killers. Pneumonia and influenza - ranked first,1 with tuberculosis a close sec end. , These infectious conditions alone accounted for thirty-three per cent of all deaths at that time and they were fatal to many children and young adults. -Today these dis eases toll a mere seven per cent of all deaths. Acute infections, suf- fered by the younger age group, J have 'been greatly reduced. Heart ening advances have been made in the battle against infantile paralys is. Another amazing event reveal-, ing the' life-saving power of Ameri can medicine is that during our working years twenty to sixty five fatal accidents destroy more lives than heart disease, cancer, or any illness. This remarkable health progress has b?endue to many fac tors public health education, bet ter sanitation and living conditions, and scientific advances in the fields of chemistry and physics but one thing is certain: such progress wouldn't have been possible without the skill of highly trained doctors. Although more and better doctors are being graduated, it is not so much the number of doctors that is important, as the total amount of good medical care available. When the American -Medical As sociation was organized in 1847, the preamble of its Constitution stated its purpose to -be, to -cultivate, and advance medical knowledge, to ele vate the standards of medical edu cation to- promote the, usefulness, ' honor and interest of the medical profession, and to enlighten and di rect public opinion in regard to the duties, responsibilities- a&" require ments of medical, men. America has more practicing physicians than anv country' except Israel. Expan sion of medical schools and facilities and the development jof hew medical Schools are being .encouraged,; for .more than twenty years the supply More live-saving science has been discovered in the past thirty years uian in all previous medical history. And a vast amount of this science is now being used by family doctors, Family doctors have banded togeth er into the rapidly growing Ameri can Academy of General Practice, an organization that helps them get practical knowledge on new dis coveries. In order to make available the best of medical care to all citizens, regardless of economic status, and to alleviate the financial burden im posed by long term malady, volun tary hospital and medical-care in surance plans are being offered. At (the present time about seventy-two percent of the insurable population carries some form of insurance against the cost of hospital care. Such plans as Blue Cross and Blue Shield have already encouraged mil lions and enlightened problems of finance in time of illness. New techniques and new drugs enable physicians to shorten length of ill ness and reduce hospital stays as well as wage loss. As a result, the total medical bill for many illnesses often actually is less than it was fifteen years ago. Doctors these days have achieved such good re sults so often that many patients expect a perfect solution to their medical problems, and immediately blame the doctor if the . outcome is not. entirely what they expected. Grievance committees are being set up in many places to investigate pa tients' complaints and to decide if patients are being overcharged. The essay wi:: MISS SHIRLEY WILDS ifofnia guarantees medical care to all people in the county, regardless of ability to pay. Also being intro duced by the California Physicians' Service is a catastrophe coverage, giving full medical care up to five thousand .dollars for two years of polio, cancer ,and twenty-one other diseases. To attract doctors to rural areas, communities are being en couraged to build hospitals and clin ics. And where a community has facilities such as the doctor bad dur ing training, it gets the doctors. Socialized medicine is a government-financed system of medical services supplied to all without charge by physicians employed On a full-time salaried basis by the gov ernment. The federal government would institute compulsory health insurance under which all ' wage earners, employers and the self-employed would be forced to pay in to a vast navToll tax. Nnhiuiv knnn Alameda County Association in Cal- how much such a program would I I cost- The doctors would be assured of an income, but with respect to po litical leaders, compulsory health in surance would prevent them from delivering their best medical care. Quoting Dr. Jame8 L. Doenges, speaking for the American Associa tion of Physicians and Surgeons be fore the Eighty-third Congress: "We ask no special favors. We ask no Federal funds. We ask merely that you refuse to take from us certain of our rights as citizens, our right to plan our own futures, and that you do not extend the questionable benefits of a Federal dole to this mi nority, the members of which do not desire to become wJc f ti, n.. ' Ul nc vn v - eminent." Also the doctors would have many calls from many people who did not need care, which would take time needed to diagnose and treat those who were reallv ill. Nnn jnediVol boards and committees in Washing ton would tell them how to treat their patients. Any system whioh attempts to remove responsibility from the individual is immoral and dishonest. Dorothy Thompson, who has lived under compulsory health systems in England, Austria, and Germany, states: "They cost the people far too much. Thev provide inferior services at a hich nrino They are incapable of dealing with really serious and complicated cases. They result in two sorts of medicine good medicine for the well-to-do; ana bad medicine for the masses at high cost to those who can least af ford it. And they build up a vested interest of physicians and bureau crats which the people will never get rid of." Under compulsory health insur ance plans hospital care is limited to sixty days in any benefit year, where as many Blue Cross and commercial insurance plans now offer hospital services from ninety to one hundred and twenty days in any one year. Hospitalization for mental disease or tuberculosis is not covered by the proposed compulsory health insur ance. These would still haye to be handled by state and private insti tutions as they are now. Socialized medicine could offer to the people no more facilities than are presently available, and these facilities would undoubtedly not be used as efficient ly as they are now under private management. Also under this sys tem, there is no mention of the pa tient's right to free choice of phy sician and hospital, or of the .phy sician's right to practice where he chooses. From these factors we re alize that medical research and med ical training must remain free from ideological or political control. The practice of medicine must not be brought under government or cor porate control. The individual's sense of responsibility for his own health must not be dulled or de- Ball Cemetery To Be Cleaned Off May 23 All who have friends and rela tives buried there, please bring tools and help clean off the Ball Ceme tery on Wednesday, May 23 all day. This work is badly needed to be done. Decoration date will be published in a later issue. Martin Ball, Walter Ball, Mitch Freeman, Committee. atroyed. The physician's sense of personal and moral responsibility to his patient as an individual must be preserved. And these can only be preserved by the continuation of private medical care with its many advantages under the warmth of freedom. EXTRA SERUICE In addition to offering the bert in DRY CLEANING SERVICE We Can CLEAN & RE-BLOCK HATS HAVE YOUR RUGS CLEANED SHOWER PROOF ALMOST ANY THING MOTH PROOF LAUNDER YOUR QUILTS AND BLANKETS CLEAN SLIP COVERS AND DRAPES CLEAN TIES PUT IN NEW POCKETS, NEW ZIPPERS MEND AND DO MOST ANY ALTERATION WE WIBL BE HAPPY TO SERVE YOU FOR PICK-UP AND DELIVERY FOR PICKUP AND DELIVERY DIAL 2461 DIAL: 2461 Edwards Cleaners MARSHALL, N. C. SERVICE IN HOT SPRINGS TO TENN. STATE LINE MONDAY THURSDAY SATURDAY P rr nil o m pi (7 n -i ..V."-A-1 . JAJU- last ttaaii (namaafM faster rate than the-general popu ,i-' y latdoa. - We have ore dentists, ' aurses, diagnotb facilities, Cnd ho fital accotmpodations than any other - - nation ia the world. 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The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
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May 17, 1956, edition 1
9
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