Date?

To The Editor:

Manchester Evening Herald
10 Brainard Place
Manchester, CT 06040

As thePresidential campaigns begin to develop particularly on the part ofthe Democratic party, the subject of a National Health Program willundoubtedly be debated. Both Carter and Kennedy have expressed theirthoughts on the subject and we have yet to hear any definitiveprogram from the several possible Republican candidates.

I thought thereaders of the "Herald" might be interested in the response of NelsonT. Bogart, Jr., Vice-President of the Standard Oil Company ofCalifornia who was asked to comment on the need for a National HealthInsurance Program. In his inimitable straight forward manner hereplied as follows:

1. "Less than 2% of the population of the U.S. is not covered by an existing health insurance program," said vice president Bogart, "and of this 2% are eligible for federal and/or state programs...Clearly NHI would be superimposed on a society, that to an overwhelming degree is already insured, when the emphasis should properly be on that small segment of the population without adequate medical insurance."

2. This country cannot afford legislation that would cost in the area of $13 billion annually not including the cost of administration and the creation of yet another bureaucracy.

3. The enactment of NHI will not have a positive effect on Medicare cost containment. It will, in fact, encourage the over utilization of the health care delivery system by removing to an even greater degree the user from the direct cost of service rendered.

4 To the degree that NHI removes the health care delivery system from the private sector, "We expect to see a decrease in needed capital expenditures, a deterioration of existing facilities, a reduction of medical research, and an overall lessening of the quality of medical care," Bogart wrote. NHI would aggravate rather alleviate the cost problem, he said. As a result we believe that the cost of NHI will rise annually in geometric progression without a corresponding increase and very possibly a decrease in the health benefits of the population.

5."Lastly NHI legislation does not recognize that employers have been effective in meeting the health insurance needs of their employees." Companies have succeeded in meeting the socially desirable goal of sharing the medical burden, Bogart said. "This process has resulted in business seeking the best use of medical benefit dollars and instituting benefits and coverage levels uniquely suited to a particular group of employees".

 

These ideas were expressed two years ago and are more valid todaythan ever before.

Sincerely yours,

Charles E. Jacobson Jr., M.D.

45 Wyllys St.

Manchester, CT