Hoover on Health

The U.S. Government is now responsible for the medical care of 30 million Americans. Cost last year: $4.15 billion. In the opinion of the Hoover Commission, that money is ill-spent by 26 overlapping, badly organized agencies and 66 administrative units. To clear up the mess, a task force of doctors.and administrative experts made stringent suggestions to the Hoover Commission.* In somewhat tempered form, the suggestions went to Congress last week. Main points:

P: Close down a score of inefficient and badly located Veterans Administration hospitals (TIME, Feb. 21), plus similar units run by the U.S. Public Health Service and armed forces.

P: Make it harder for veterans to get treatment for nonservice disabilities (at present, more than half of the 100,000 beds in VA hospitals are taken up by such cases at an estimated cost of $500 million a year). To get care for nonservice disabilities, veterans now have only to say that they cannot afford treatment elsewhere. Henceforth, recommended the Commission, such statements should be verified.

P: Open outpatient clinics for veterans with nonservice disabilities to ease the burden on hospitals.

P: Stop medical care for 2,500 merchant seamen now in U.S. Public Health Service hospitals. This oldest (1798) medical responsibility taken on by the Government is now unnecessary because many shipping companies have private medical-insurance programs.

P: Set up health insurance for 2,000,000 federal employees, but make them pay for it through premiums (as in Blue Shield plans).

P: Create a central advisory council to coordinate all Government health programs and a central authority to direct medical measures in case of atomic attack.

The Commission's proposals, it figured, mean spending an extra $106 million, but save $400 million for a net cut of $294 million a year.

* Officially known, in the gobbledygook it seeks to abolish, as the "Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government."

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