OCR Text |
Show Millions of Americans Share Hope for Health Care of Aged By U.S. Rep. Cecil B. King (D-Calif.) Co-sponsor of the King-Anderson Health Care for the Elderly Bill President Kennedy resumed his battle for medical care for the elderly under Social Security Sec-urity with the heartening knowledge knowl-edge that among Americans of all adult age groups 70 per cent now "favor" the social security principle as the best method to provide health protection for our Senior citizens. In addition, the chief opposition, opposi-tion, the American Medical Association's As-sociation's lobby against Social Security for health care, is currently cur-rently being vigorously opposed by a newly formed committee of physicians, mostly members of the AMA. One of the prime objectives of the new organization will be to provide facts in rebuttal to' the AMA's much abused and erroneous claim that it is "socialized "social-ized medicine." Although the AMA spent well over $150,000 during the first half of 1961 to defeat the Administration's Ad-ministration's health care for the elderly bill, I am confident that no amount of money, no matter how large, will again frustrate the will of the great majority of the 183,000,000 Americans. A co-sponsor of the King-Anderson health care for the aged bill, I have devoted considerable time to place before the public the undeniable facts surrounding the urgent need for medical care for the aged through Social Security. Sec-urity. And, through the Administration's Admin-istration's determination to take this proposal to the people the result has been the overwhelming overwhelm-ing citizen approval of the King-Anderson King-Anderson Bill. The undisputable fact is that among the most pressing problems prob-lems of the aged is the growing inability to afford health care when they need it most. People over 65 are in hospitals on the average, more than 2Vz times as often as younger people. In recent years these problems have been aggravated by rising hospital costs. The costs have more than tripled in the last 15 years. Statistics cannot measure the anxiety and suffering of elderly people who see their small savings, sav-ings, their homes, their security about to be swept away by the near certainty of expensive illness. ill-ness. Behind the facts and figures are human beings average Americans of 65 realizing that in the days ahead there are almost al-most certain to be faced with large hospital bills. What they worry about is what happens if they get sick. Will their children be able to help? Will they have to draw their last dollar from the bank, for the first time in their lives mortgage their homes, apply for relief and go through the humiliation humili-ation of a test of need, ask help from friends? The general public, it appears, has reached the conclusion that the Social Security approach is the Nation's answer to the problem prob-lem to meet the costs of medical care for the aged. There will be in existence a significant gap that denies to all but those with the highest incomes in-comes a full measure of security the high cost of ill health in old age until such health assistance assist-ance is financed under the Social Security system as proposed by the King-Anderson Bill. |