Premiums & Benefits

Americans spent an average of $95 each on medical care in 1958, the Health Insurance Institute reported this week. Breakdown (in billions) of the $16.7 billion total: doctors, $4.8; hospitals, $4.5; prescriptions and other medicines and appliances, $4.4; dentists, $1.7; miscellaneous (including private nurses, nursing homes, chiropractors, eyeglasses), $1.3. In addition, the public laid out $5.9 billion for health and hospitalization premiums, got back $4.7 billion in benefits. The insurance covered 123 million people for hospital expenses, in million for surgical, 17 million for major medical.

After refusing to write new life insurance for generations of heart-disease victims, the insurance industry is catching up with newer medical thinking: these patients are not necessarily such bad risks as they were once rated. But the penalty premiums are still steep: a man of 50 who has done well for 13 months after a heart attack must pay annually $100 to $125 per $1,000 of insurance as against $40 for a man in full health. The penalty drops with longevity: at 60, he may be paying only $15 to $20 additional. Last week, physicians for the Equitable Life Assurance Society listed four steps that may promote a cardiac's survival and insurability: cut down excess weight, blood cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking.

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