Doc Strike

In Japan, garagemen charge 22-c- to repair a punctured tire, while doctors get 15-c- for a medical checkup. Feeling understandably misused, the Japanese Medical Association last week called its members out on two 24-hour strikes and announced that Japan's 70,000 doctors would strike--and demonstrate--every Sunday until they get a 30% raise in fees.

The striking doctors were careful not to leave Japan completely undoctored. Stand-by staffs were detailed to treat emergency cases in hospitals--but getting to the hospital was a problem. Firemen in Tokyo pressed 114 red fire engines into part-time duty as ambulances, made 523 stretcher calls. Despite all the sirens and confusion, only six deaths were attributed to the doctors' strike, and in each case the patient was so far gone he would probably have died anyhow.

Target of the doctors' strikes is the health insurance plan, Japan's form of socialized medicine. Under the plan, an appendectomy brings $8.80, an abortion (legal in Japan) $2.62. an emergency night house call 34-c-. The highest fee is $27.80, for delicate brain or heart surgery. As a result, 60% of Japan's doctors earn less than $85 a month--even less than the average Japanese schoolteacher.

An even more bitter pill for any self-respecting medical man is the government's control over the treatment of every diagnosable malady. The Ministry of Welfare code prescribes every step. If, for example, a doctor suspects tuberculosis, he may Xray, but can collect his fee (88-c-) only if the results are positive.

Says the Japanese Medical Association's president, rotund Dr. Taro Takemi, who is leading the doctors' demonstrations: "It is unfortunate that the situation exists where a doctor must parade in the streets. I agree it is unethical from the broad human viewpoint, but doctors, too, are human beings."

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