OCR Text |
Show BEAVER PRESS American Prisoners of War in Rome The. American Farm Family Is Now Enjoying, the - Conveniences and Benefits of Prepaid Hospital Care Through Blue Cross Hospital Service Plans " By ELMO SCOTT WATSON - ") JH, Mill lJWMIJWUWW1.IWJ)..yW!M)uy.WJl,WWlJLl uTvi ! Ufa IHJJUM Released by Western Newspaper Union THIS J. is the story of "the H.I fastest growing move ment in the country one that is adding to the health and peace of mind of millions of Americans. Seven years aco there were fewer than a jf ; 'U W 600,000 of those Americans more than there are Today more than one 14,000,000 tenth of our whole population and it's likely that by the end of the year that number if-- . will have risen to 18,000,000. This movement is group hospital insurance which, der the stimulation of wartime conditions, has become a $100,000,000 a year business. And, as the result of the Blue Cross Hospital Service plan, According to the German caption with these photos, which reached the United States via a neutral i... ill.,Yf.rrn the above men are Americans who were taken captive by the Germans at the Allied bridgehead at sponsored by the American Sis is visited by Mother and Dad, Blue Cross hospital plan subscribers. ine prisoners are on weir way vo internment camps in me rear Hospital association, Mr. John Q. Citizen, one of these operatives, creameries, and other From Minnesota farm bureau 14,000,000, has the assurance s assoof prepaid hospital care sponsorship Double-Barrele- d has spread to other states notably that, should illness or acci- ciations. dent make hospital care necNorth In the cities, workers who are buy Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, essary for him or some mem- ing hospital protection pay for it by Dakota and Oklahoma, until now ber of his family, his pocket-boo- k payroll deduction. Farmers, who en- there are 15 in which farm bureau will not be suddenly and roll through banks, authorize those federation members may take adto make periodic deduc- vantage of Blue Cross plans through devastatingly depleted. And institutions tions from their checking or savings their unit groups. In December, of which mind the peace accounts to pay the required fees. 1942, the American Farm bureau at comes from the assurance of Where its annual meeting in Chicago wrote enroll through creamthat fact has been purchased eries orthey cooperatives, periodic de- into its nationwide program of work by John Q. at an average cost ductions are made from their cream a strong indorsement of the nonof less than five cents a day! or grain checks and those who en- profit group hospital care plans and fact tat thin L.I cure rV y t t7 W'faKw battlf td Mil tvery d secli hap sact Jiovi However, the significant about this story for readers of this newspaper is that the group hospital service plan has spread to the rural areas of the nation and is rapidly becoming as common as it has been in metropolitan centers. Of course, it has always been true that farmers and members of their families get sick or have accidents just as do factory workers. The same is true of employees of business firms in villages and small towns. In fact, both classes need help and often are less able to pay hospital bills than are the middle class or groups In the big cities. So there was quite as much reason for their having the benefit of low-coplanned and "prepaid" hospital care as for their city cousins having it. The principal reason why they didn't get it sooner lay in certain factors which are the very heart of the planned hospital care idea. Of those factors the word "group" is the key. First of all, enrollment of members in such a plan has to be through groups and these groups have to be large enough so that, as in any insurance of this one type, their members are "good risks." With the popu-latio- n so scattered in rural areas, it seemed that it would be almost impossible either to enroll people or to make collections from them. It seemed also that groups would be so small and so few that each subscriber would be in effect an "individual" subscriber, hence a hazardous risk. Then, too, it was believed that the people of rural America, especially farmers, are such individualists and independent thinkers that they could not be enrolled in hospitalization groups large enough to be Comes the 'Blue Cross.' For these, and other, reasons the earliest plans for hospital care were concentrated in the big cities where large industries, whose employees were numbered by the thousands, offered the best opportunity for handling such insurance on a group basis. Then came the organi-2atioof the Hospital Service Plan commission of the American Hospi tal association to sponsor the "Blue Cross" movement. "Blue Cross" is a general term which identifies the 77 group plans for hospital care which meet the standards of community service, professional sponsorship, organization and financial solvency and which have been approved by the American Hospital association. Not only did the Blue Cross movement expand the planned hospital care idea in the cities but it was chiefly responsible for its "moving out into the country." It spread to the smaller cities and towns first and then out to the farms. It's true that farmers are "independent thinkers" but, as one of the pioneer workers In the rural field has stated, they are also "shrewd buyers and are quick to take to something Once its value has been proved." So now farmers are being enrolled through banks, with which they do business and which are willing to cooperate, through their farm bureaus, their granges, their farmers' unions. co- low-inco- st n non-prof- roll through the grange, farm bureau or farmers' union pay their fees on a quarterly, semiannual or annual basis, mostly the latter two. How the Flan Works. Although there are 77 different group plans for hospital care and they differ from each other in some minor details, here is the essen tial method of their operation: The hospitals in a certain region city, county or state guarantee hospital service to Blue Cross subscribers, whether they are members of groups In factories, city offices, educlubs, union organizations or farm groups, who have agreed to pay a certain amount for this service at regular intervals. This amount varies somewhat according to the group plan. Membership costs from $7.20 to $10.20 a year for one person and from $15 to $24 a year for the member and his family, including his wife and all unmarried children under the age of 18. In Minnesota, where the pioneer-in- g work in farm enrollment was done, there is a plan which offers a man complete coverage for himself and 50 per cent discounts for his wife and children at $12 a year, plus $3 for each adult dependent, In return for these payments the insured, or member of his family, who has to go to a hospital gets a e room, his meals, general nursing, anesthetics, special diets, dressings, laboratory tests. and operating room charges. (This does not include, however, the physician's or surgeon's fees.) He can enter any one of the country's approved, registered hospitals, that is those hospitals recognized as meeting the standards of the American Medical association or state and local agencies. If for any reason one of these hospitals can't take him in because of lack of room, some of the plans pay back double the year's premium, but many of them provide cash payments for home care equivalent to the amount that the hospital care would have been worth. However, there have been very few instances when a Blue Cross member couldn't get into a hospital becaue the number of these institutions which participate in the plan is 2,500 with 80 per cent of the bed capacity of all the hospitals in the United States open to the public. Reference has been made to the pioneering work done in Minnesota in rural enrollment in hospital plans. It began in 1938 under the auspices of the farm bureau in Hennepin county with 42 family contracts for a total service coverage of 90 persons. Since then farm bureau memberships in that state have increased to 6,200 contracts with 22,400 s covered for hospital care. These, in 325 local units in 61 coun ties, have found the plan highly sue cessful and satisfactory. There are 87 counties in the state and a total of 1,200 farm bureau units so that three-fourth- s of all the counties in Minnesota now have units enrolled in the Blue Cross and more than of the units are already protecting themselves against sudden hospitalization costs. cational institutions, semi-privat- X-ra- per-son- one-fourt- h other that rural health CriL-- developments farm family lend themselves to unit action. However, the farm bureau is not the only agency through which the hospital plan is being carried to the farms of the nation. In Hillsdale county, Mich., the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance company, a cod operative, was used as the group through which to put the hospital plan into operation. In northern Illinois, the Northern Illinois Hospital service, serving 11 counties and their small towns, ranging in population from 300 to 1,500, have worked in with Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions clubs, with women's clubs, PTAs, Veterans of Foreign Wars posts and home churches, farm bureaus, bureaus and granges. As a result in these 11 counties more than 4,500 farm families, representing 13,500 individuals are Blue Cross members. Combined Business Groups. In North Carolina a great many of the small groups in the small towns are enrolled as combined business groups. This type of enrollment means combining many small businesses into a group, getting 75 per cent or more of the employes in these various small concerns to be come members of the Blue Cross. In some of these combined groups, as many as 800 persons join. These groups consist of drug stores, grocery stores, warehouses etc. The FSA has also been active in cooper ating with the Blue Cross plans in North Carolina and other states in bringing prepaid hospital care to low income families. Indicative of the way in which small town and rural America is enlisting under the Blue Cross banner are these facts taken at random from many examples. In one Iowa town of 592 population, 445 or 75 per cent have enrolled in a hospital care plan and in another town of 4,405, a total of 2,214 or 50 per cent have joined. In one Wisconsin community the local power company acts as collector and remitting agent and the people of the community who have enrolled pay for this insurance along with their monthly electric bills. This town has a population of 1,000 and out of a possible 450 persons employed in the town, 155 have enrolled, there being 105 family contracts and 41 individual contracts. Such instances could be multiplied indefinitely. From all of which it is evident that rural America is indeed "shrewd buyers and quick to take to something once its value has been proved." As for proving its value, ask the Blue Cross member in New York state who was recently hospitalized for 53 days. His contract covered him for 23 days oi one contract year and 28 days of the new year, a total of 51 days. His total hospital bill was $300.55. When he was ready to be discharged iium we nuspiiai, ne was nanaed a hospital service credit of $288.30. That meant he had to pay in cash to the hospital only $12.25. "It's a thrill that comes once in a lifetime," he said. And then, quite naturally, he added, "I think is a great idea." . r.fcw par s Ne :visfl :ers ;4 ession Smash at 'Fortress' Europe farmer-busines- to eiies V. well-organiz- BP of a tl .its a atr. ::alb: get : by list' ; - Russia already-establishe- I - K"v rC' L. Tthri FRANCE HrT-a- J" t' x . YUGOSLAVIA RUMANIA )y, 7v lis iiin; ui Met- X ; Here is snown tne boundary referred to as Hitler's "Inner Fortress," which soon may be cracking ii nru piaces. .even as me tied army pauses in preparation for a spring drive, the Russians are at the wall of the fortress, and are expected to hit at vital Lwow, rail gate to Warsaw and Berlin. The must crack the heavily fortified coast line and break throueh manv divisions of fiermanv's standing troops. Meanwhile, pounds from the air continue to knock out Nazi air strength, ci ran lines ana arms lactones. ! nitt in uuu in Wm iitnnc! ii iMiuuno It nuuu i VUlCIt I UOI1 aboi ease sue Just s rate. !S US 1 FiQi ?. W71 .Vi jven Jj! 1 W IllaLlC.iSiof tfa on f 'aul obs eTu 3oubl N of In one :artoc -- S - - x- i vr- . . Bill While is not a i Soar. He is a member Jitha Wac, W of the of .can W fighting Irish regiment the order of the day as thousand, of reminiscent of the Ladies itw resident, Were strandcd downtown by flood of World War I. Here he wlw of water, the Arkansas river. These venturesome Individuals are the to tct trying streets, ignoring Chicago home by fording a more shallow avenue of escape whistles. m!! u ' .J 1U( k India's Delegates to Labor Pari ey , !5d r nev onts :cam sT4t Hero Welcome IN I-I 1 1 Membership Grows From 500,000 to 11 Million in Seven Years Protection of Americans and their families against the costs of hospital care was extended to more than 13,000,000 persons in 1943, when 2,600,000 additional participants in the United States and Canada elected to enroll in Blue Cross Plans. This figure is exclusive of 750,000 suspended contracts held by subscribers in the armed forces, who may renew protection upon their return to civilian life. These facts are revealed by Rufus Rorem, director of the Hospital Service Plan commission, which the activities and approves the policies of 78 Blue Cross Plans located in 38 states and seven Canadian provinces. The proportion of family dependents enrolled has steadily increased, from 37 per cent in 1937 to the present 54 per cent, thus indicating a growing desire by commercial, and industrial employers and employees to protect their wives C. agri-cultur- al and children, as well as themselves. Here is the record for the seven years: Ytar Total Family (Jnnu.irjr 11 1937... Partlcl- - punts . 534.745 1938... . 1,364.975 1939... . 2.874,055 1940... . 4,431,772 1941... . 0,049.222 1942... . 8,458,265 1943... .10,458,899 1944.... 13,005,493 Sub- - criber 637. 60 54 55 5t 48 47 46 Partici- pints - it,. ii , f a'J (J to -- i 4 y jl. f F3 37'i 1, 40 4 45 49 52 53 54 Soil t Members of the India delegation to tion conference at Temple nlvers aarnnada, Mehta Ind a Federation of Labor; D, G. Mnlherkar. i. wri.ni.aiion oi inausiriai employees; II. C. Trior. InHi 7 ri. u.. 0oervice and Sir Samuel Ronganadha, commissioner. 'fiC JS IS AH-in- 5 t 4 i j J 41 ' you Ar,n nprlDf 'HO." Tech. Set. Charles C. (Con"' apt, 1 W KeUy. as he Is welcomed Illl.l,.,..l.. .! ... Congressional kllllnt 40 .wsf'" r-- ll- Medal Nails at of H Salern '"er'i |