10
—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 23,1971
The Growing Medical Cost Squeeze
Anyone who's had major illness in the
family involving hospitalization recently is
acutely and painfully award of the rising
cost of medical care.
Unfortunately, cost of living studies
indicate that hospital care will continue to
be one of the fastest rising cost areas in
our economy. Why? The September issue
of Report to Business by the Pennsylvania
Chamber of Commerce carried this
revealing hospital cost breakdown:
What’s happening to hospital costs and
hospital utilization? The insurance
Economics Society of America, which
recently scored today's hospital costs,
came up with these results:
A special report by the New York
Hospital determined that the wage and
salaries portion of its budget rose from
$12.4 million in 1960 to $33.8 million in
1970.
X-ray exams increased 150 per cent in
the last 10 years, bactenologic tests almost
doubled, chemical laboratory tests nearly
tripled, and tests using radioisotopes
quadrupled.
In 1960, the hospital employed a house
staff equivalent to 2 4 employes per
patient This rose to 4.6 in 1970.
In 1952, an intern received a stipend of
$240 a year By 1963 it was $2,700 , and
today it is $10,500. In 1952, the number of
physicians on the house staff was 162;
today it is 312.
In most industries, there are some major
areas of rising costs; but these usually are
offset by some other areas of relative
stability or even declining costs; the net
result is usually a modest overall increase.
But took again at the hospital tally sheet!
Costs shooting up in every direction. More
employes, including doctors; sharply rising
salaries; greater use of costly equipment.
We feel certain that the higher cost is at
least partially offset by better medical
care. Still, hospitalization is one of the
areas in our economy which accounts for
the growing squeeze on the average wage
earner’s pay check.
The Chamber of Commerce’s startling
statistics are followed by another report
explaining why the concept of "preventive
medicine” is becoming increasingly
popular:
According to the Insurance Economics
Society of America, health care authorities
are turning to one of the most basic health
concepts to help stem the nation’s health
care crisis. And it's so simple that it might
have been conceived by a junior high
school student. It is called "preventive
care" and is based on accentuating early
detection and treatment.
LANCASTER FARMING
Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weeklj
P. O. Box 266 - LititzfPa. 17543
Office: 22 E. Main St., Lititz, Pa. 17543
Phone: Lancaster 394-3047 or Lititz 626-2191
Robert G. Campbell, Advertising Director
Zane Wilson, Managing Editor
Subscription price: $2 per year in Lancaster
County: S 3 elsewhere
Established November 4,1955
Published every Saturday by Lancaster
Farming, Lititz, Pa.
Second Class Postage paid at Lititz, Pa
17543.
Member of Newspaper Farm Editors Assn.
Pa. Newspaper Publishers Association, and
National Newspaper Association
An early approach will cost less in time
and money than late treatment. Health
care experts put it this way; while we
usually provide adequate medical care, too
often we provide it too late.
Here’s what G. Frank Purvis, Jr,,
Chairman of the Health Insurance
Association of America whose 308
member companies account for 80 per
cent of the health insurance written by
insurance companies in the United States
has to say: “Very simply, we have
grossly distorted our priorities. Only in
very rare instances has medical treatment,
or even cure, ever controlled a disease in a
population. At best, treatments and cures
have made possible only modest reduc
tions in the incidence of disease. Un
fortunately, curing a disease doesn’t
control it, but prevention can.”
This point is emphasized by public health
officials. Polio, dipthena and smallpox, the
experts point out, have been turned back
by immunization, while cholera, typhoid
and much infant mortality have been
overcome by proper sanitation.
Still, the value of preventive care,
especially through regular health
examinations, has been difficult to com
municate to the general public. But now
the economics of the situation are
beginning to be felt more keenly,and more
people are beginning to listen. For in
stance, with average hospital expenses
well past $79 a 'day, and costs in many
large cities more than $lOO a day, people
are anxious to try new methods which
promise to reduce these costs.
Statisticians of the Health Insurance
Institute estimate that if only one day could
be cut from the average length of hospital
stays, the public would save some $1.7
billion annually. Preventive care could help
to accomplish this.
Mr. Purvis, who is also chairman of the
Pan-American Life Insurance Company of
New Orleans, explains- “It is time we and
the nation became more aware that the
point of no return has been reached by
treatment and cure and that, in fact,
severely diminishing returns have begun
to set in. If private health insurers help
foster a greater understanding of this
concept through the emphasis of health
maintenance and disease prevention, we
could achieve some truly spectacular
health gams.”
While Purvis, as an insurance executive,
has a more direct interest in keeping
hospital costs within bounds than most of
us, we should realize that we as consumers
always pay.
While our insurance may pay a particular
hospital bill, the insurance must eventually
rise to reflect rising payouts.
Or, if we succeed in making costs too
high and driving the insurance company
out of business, we’ll probably have some
type of governmental substitute, financed
by ever rising taxes.
No matter how it’s handled, we’ll pay if
hospital costs are allowed to get out of
hand.
While there may be some drawbacks in
implementing the concept of preventive
medicine, it certainly deserves our backing
as a step in the right direction on an in
creasingly important problem.
NOW IS
THE TIME..
By Mu Smith
Lancaster County Agent
To Seal Trench Silos
Many livestock producers store
extra silage in some type of
trench or horizontal silo until the
upright silo is partly emptied;
this practice is very common
where mechanical feeding is
practiced. If the forage in the
trench silo was not too well
packed at the time of filling,
there will be considerable set
tling and could be additional air
spaces. Where the black plastic is
used to keep out the air, and old
rubber tires are used to keep the
plastic down tight against the
silage, it may be necessary to
keep tightening the plastic by
pulling it down and covering with
soil around the bottom. It is not a
good practice to have the plastic
flapping up and down when the
wind blows. It should be tight
enough and have enough tires on
top to keep it firmly against the
silage at aU times. To seal out the
air will mean reduced top
spoilage. The silage from this
horizontal silo should be tran
sferred into the upright silo, or
fed to livestock as soon as
possible, or at least before warm
weather arrives next spring.
To Reduce Volunteer Corn
Corn picking is in full swing
and we urge all growers to make
every effort to harvest the
maximum amount of their crop.
Corn left in the field is a loss and
according to last year’s ex
perience may be the start of
serious southern com leafblight
infection.'lf the fields cannot be
gleaned by hand or livestock,
NEVER TOO
BROKEN
Lesson for October 24,1971
tackgreund Scripture Isatoh 61, Ephe
sians 2 11-19, Colossians 1 21-23
Devotienal Reading' Isaiah 42 1 9.
“It cannot be fixed ”
These are usually very disheart
ening words A valuable vase has
shattered into many pieces, a
.favorite coat has been badly tom,
a once-dependable machine will
perform no longer—all of them
beyond repair.
So it is with life
io There is much
•okenness with
and between
ioplc. Relation
nps seem irre
aruble, lives
iem mined, corn
unities seem
•n asunder
.... too broken to
Rev. Althouse mend, it appears.
There is a chamatic scene in John
Masefield’s poem, The Window In
The Bye Street, with a widow
present at the execution of her
son. Deeply moved, she prays,
and in her prayer she speaks of
eternal life as “a rest for broken
things too broke to mend.”
It is true there are some things
that have become too broken for
men to repair Some people arc
like “Humpty Dumpty” in that
“all the king’s horses and all the
king’s men” can’t put them to
gether again” Often the most
tragic consequences of sin is the
knowledge that we cannot do any
thing to “make up for it ” Though
then the com should be disced or
plowed this fall; every effort
should be made to keep this com
from growing next spring. When
it is disced this fall, or plowed
during the winter, it should rot
and not- be able to germinate.
Even though we are expecting all
resistant supplies of seed com
next spring, it is still good
management to harvest all of the
crop this fall. It may not be worth
the price of a year age, but it will
still make good feed for milk or
meat production.
To Manage Cattle Carefully
Many feeders are buying cattle
to consume the current com
crop; with the prices of grain it
continues to appear that
marketing the grain crop through
livestock this fall and winter is
the thing to do. Extreme care
should be used in handling these
newly-purchased cattle; they
should be segregated from the
acclimated cattle and observed
very closely for the first several
weeks. Plenty of rest, quietness,
fresh air and water, and plenty of
roughage will get them off to a
good start. They should not come
into contact with or eat or drink
from the same trough as other
cattle. Animals that are sick or
“slow” should be separated into
sick pens and treated for their
infection. Chutes and a catch
gate are very important in order
to treat the animals with a
minimum of excitement. Plans
for this equipment are available
at our Extension Office.
men are capable of destroying al
most everything, there are v many
things they cannot repair.
The beauty of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ is its word of hope
and promise concerning all the
brokenness of life. Jesus came to
heal our brokenness, to make us
whole again. He came as the ful
fillment of Isaiah’s ancient prom
ise of a divine Healer:
. . . the Lord has annointed me
to bring good tidings to the af
flicted; he has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to pro
claim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison
to those who are bound . . .
(Isaiah 61:1).
“Holy” and “whole”
Christ’s whole purpose in com
ing, said Paul, was to: “present
you holy and blameless and irre
proachable before him . . (Co
lossians 1:22). To be “holy” is to
be “whole.” Both of these terms
as well as “healthy” are derived
from a common Old English word,
hal, which means complete. Thus,
the Gospel proclaims to us the
assurance that things are never
too broken that, by the power of
Christ, they cannot be made whole.
We often make the mistake of
giving up on that which is badly
broken. There are some situations
that leave us hopeless. We must
remember there was never a situ
ation so hopeless, never a man so
helpless, never a cause so doomed
as on Good Friday. Yet, says the
Easter faith, life is never too
broken to mend
(Based on outlines copyrighted by the
Division of Christian Education, National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the U S.A.
Released by Community Press Service.)