Dr. Mia

Socialized Medicine

Correspondence, New International, Vol.5 No.1, January 1939, p.30.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

I WOULD like to call your attention that the article What is Socialized Medicine? by Dr. William Harvey is not good enough for your excellent magazine. Marxism, translated in my professional language, is applied science.

The propagandistic motive of the article is too conspicuous, the facts are not quite accurate and sometimes inaccurately interpreted.

The danger of medical care under the control of governmental agencies is exaggerated; however, nobody would like to miss constructive criticism of social legislation in the field of medical care by a forceful democratically-controlled organization of medical and allied workers. The same language of danger is used by the Bourbons of the profession, using only different terms to prevent progress in social legislation and health. (See NY Times, Dec. 14, under Physicians Oppose Compulsory Aid.)
Group medicine is not the only feature of modern medicine. Putting special stress upon group medicine and making a fetish out of it means to help the increasingly degenerative influence of capitalism on medicine, it means to reduce the surgeon with his thorough knowledge in surgical pathology and with his good surgical judgment into a surgical technician – to divide the fine diagnostician of general internal medicine into an X-ray photographer of the lungs, a photographer of the heart (electrocardiographer), a photographer of the upper parts of the intestinal tracts or the lower part of the intestinal tract, etc. Over-specialization and half-specialization, products of decay, are as much wasteful as an expensive medical outfit of the individualistic physician. Who would like to miss the Gellespies in the practise of medicine? (Dr. Kildare.)
(c) In general the rank and file of the medical profession is socio-politically today still immature, not even approaching puberty of political consciousness. The League of Socialized Medicine came to life in time of the depression when the physician became panicky on account of losses in Wall St. and decrease of practise in his office. The moment the depression became stabilized the membership of the League dispersed and the League exists today as an organization on paper. In spite of the good program of the League, the leadership with few exceptions, was interested only in playing county politics.

The revolt of the famous “Committee of 430” can be reduced to the interests of some gentlemen to exchange the financial insecurity of their hospitals – kept up by insecure voluntary donations of individual capitalists – with the solid financial support by the government whereby they wouldn’t mind fullfilling certain limited social obligations if the government should demand them.

New York
Mia

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