Show r High Cost pf Illness I 4 I IS S a baffling problem Medi Medical 1 a associations associations ocia- ocia I IT Irr and the lic g government ven have been workIng working work work- ing lug on a possible solution for the prevalent lent high cost of sickness It affects first of all I the vast majority of people between the richand rich richand I and alid the very poor the thc the middle class For Forthe Forthe the tle man of f moderate means sickness continues continues con con- to be a luxury he cannot afford in an anT anage anage age T when luxuries have been brought within the he reach of all Though the science nce of medicine has gone gon forward with industrial science the economics o of medicine have not adjusted themselves to new conditions The once once elastic and beneficent beneficent benefi benefi- c cent nt rule Jule of requiring the patient to pay for medical service in proportion to his financial ability and the poor to be treated gratis graUs is isnow now v found to work a real h hardship upon the I middle classes I The flie average citizen is unable to meet without great strain the accumulated fees for forc c expert pert medical and surgical and surgical attention for nursing and hospitalization o The Th doctor may argue th that t the man of moderate means can cans s solve lve the problem as it affects his family b by not requiring requiring-a private room and aid special nurse This might hold down the Ilie expense but most men men would impoverish themselves to get special attention for themselves and family rather than take to the suggestion Surgeon General Genera Gumming Cumming suggests that state medicine may do away with the present individual relationship between doctor and patient and the present individualism in medic medical medical medi medi- c cal l practice Even this he lie adds would not satisfy the man of moderate means for it sUn still would h herd rd pat patients into hospitals andr and r remove move the intimacy of treatment The American Medical association has bas been puzzling over the problem for fOI years with i h no definite plan yet offered |