Socialized Medicine and You
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE AND YOU
Mr. Reagan's concern is very real and all of us who are equally concerned should follow his advice. You may wonder just what sort of letter to write your congressman.
The answer is, almost any letter -- so long as it reflects your thinking, your convictions, your feelings...and so long as you use your own words, and put them in your own hand-writing.
Perhaps a little background on the subject of socialized medicine will prove helpful to you.
To begin with, socialized medicine simply means compulsory national health insurance; medicine controlled and administered by the Federal Government financed through compulsory taxation.
For many years an attempt has been made to socialize the practice of medicine through the Social Security tax mechanism. The American people and Congress have rejected overwhelmingly these attempts.
Last year Representative Forand attempted to establish, the principle of socialized medicine by applying it only to the elderly -- at first. He, and others like him, counted on the concern we all feel for those of the aged in need of help.
The Forand Bill failed. But this year, another congressman has stepped forward to lead the forces of socialized medicine -- Representative King of California. It is his measure -- H.R. 4222, or the King Bill, that now threatens the free practice of medicine.
The supporters of the King Bill contend that most of the aged are in poor health and that most of the aged are. financially unable to pay for their own medical care.
The fact is that most of the aged are in reasonably good health. And most are in reasonably good shape financially. Surveys prove both points.
However, I'm sure that we all recognize that -- some of our older people are in poor health; and some can't afford to pay for the health care they need.
That's why the doctors of America strongly supported the legislation passed during the last congress -- the so-called Kerr-Mills Law. They felt -- and have always felt -- that people who need medical help should get it, but that tax dollars should not be used to pay the medical and hospital bills of those who are perfectly able to pay their own.
Physicians favored the Kerr-Mills Law because it would help those of the elderly who need help, help them quickly and effectively, and do so without wasting either the taxpayers money, or destroying the basic American freedoms involved in our system of medical practice.
The Kerr-Mills Law is now being put into effect. It permits the individual states to guarantee to every American over 65 who needs help, the health care he requires. It benefits all older persons unable to meet the cost of a serious or chronic illness. It specifically allows the individual states to run their own programs - it provides for local administration and local determination of need and is financed from both the federal and state general tax funds.
Without even giving this program a chance to prove what can do, the King Bill, H.R. 4222, was introduced. Here's how it would work: The Federal Government would buy a limited amount of hospitalization, nursing home care, home health services, and outpatient hospital diagnostic services for all eligible to receive Social Security retirement payments regardless of their financial means. The number of days the beneficiary could receive these services is limited. And, the patient would be required to pay $10.00 a day for the first nine days spent in a hospital; and $20.00 for each complete diagnostic study made.
Physicians' services in the fields of radiology, pathology, physiatry, and anesthesiology would be included, plus the services of interns and residents and those serving the out- patient clinics. There is little doubt but what the program would soon be expanded to include all physician services as well as to cover the entire population -- thus completely socializing medicine in the United States.
The Federal Government would set up the rules and regulations under which the program would operate. And everyone who pays Social Security taxes would help pay the bill -- because taxes would be raised beyond the nine per cent of taxable payroll already scheduled in the years ahead.
I am sure many of you are wondering why there is any objection to using the Social Security System to finance medical care for the aged.
Well, first of all, it is a misnomer to think of Social Security as being insurance.
In the Nestor vs. Flemming case heard before the Supreme Court in 1959 the Department of Justice in its brief said: "The OASI program is in no sense a federally administered insurance program under which each worker pays premiums over the years and acquires at retirement an indefeasible right to receive...a fixed monthly benefit...The contributions exacted are a tax."
Many people also have the mistaken impression that Social Security benefits are paid out of accumulated reserves similar to private insurance programs, when in truth the program is financed almost entirely on a pay-as-you-go basis with the benefits paid out of current income. Pay-as-you-go means that the government raises through current taxes just enough money to pay the cost of the benefits currently due. No one prepays his own benefits. Today's taxpayers pay for today's beneficiaries.
The acceptance of the King Bill would actually mean that our children and grandchildren will be asked to pay ever increasing Social Security taxes to finance the medical care needs of the previous generations. With growing families, young people have enough difficulty trying to make ends meet without assuming the additional obligation of paying higher taxes to pay for the medical care needs of all over 65, many of whom are in better financial shape than those paying the tax.
This is the choice we are faced with. On the one hand, we can help those who need help, while preserving the right of the self-reliant to finance their own care or we can legislate a compulsory national health scheme for the aged -- regardless of whether they need it or not.
To put this choice in even sharper focus, Americans are being asked to choose between a system of medicine practiced in freedom; and a system of socialized medicine for the elderly which will be expanded into socialized medicine for every man, woman, and child in the United States.
Your letter will help determine the outcome of this struggle. Remember what Ronald Reagan said: "Write those letters now; call your friends and tell them to write them. If you don't, this program, I promise you, will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow. And behind it will come other Federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country. Until one day, as Norman Thomas said, we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don't do this and if I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free."
