A Cure for Doctors' Bills

Was reading this article and what struck me is how relevant many parts of the discussion are still today.

A Cure for Doctors' Bills - The Atlantic

This article is from the atlantic from 1930. As a colleague of mine said - no matter what happens over the next few months, there will always be a need for health reform for ages to come.

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"The high costs of medical care are not only the subject of countless articles in the public prints, but are even being discussed in the inner circles of the profession...

The medical profession itself has now seen the writing on the wall. Something must be done. In Europe the drift is toward state medicine. In this country, too, there is a definite set of opinion in that direction. At the annual meeting of the American Medical Association held in Detroit in June, the retiring president of the association told the house of delegates that socialization of medicine, along lines now suggested in England, was inevitable, unless the American physicians themselves established medical centres to enable the poor and the ‘white-collar classes’ to cope with the mounting cost of living.

‘Medicine,’ he said, ‘is being besieged on every side by forces that are constantly growing stronger and stronger, and unless some defensive effort is made to break the siege, the profession must eventually capitulate, become socialized, and become employees of the State.’

Most American doctors look upon any such solution with dismay. The medical journals are full of protestations against the threatened loss of the doctor’s professional independence. State medicine is their special bête noire."