One Steno = 19.44 Appendices

Cincinnati's Dr. Arthur G. King, an obstetrician with an eye for Labor Department statistics, sharply disagrees with the complaint that doctors' bills are out of control. Compared to the other costs, he argued last week in Medical Economics, medical expenses have actually dropped. Back in 1936, as Dr. King figures it, an electrician had to work 2 1/2 hours to pay for a physician's daytime house call. In 1956 it took him only 1 1/2 hours. To pay for an appendectomy in 1936, a plumber had to work 73 1/2 hours v. a mere 44 in 1956. But the general practitioner who needed 1.28 house calls in 1936 to buy his wife a new pair of shoes now needs 2.28. Where a surgeon could pay his stenographer for a year with fees from 12.36 appendectomies, he now has to perform the operation 19.44 times.

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