PEDIATRICS Vol. 1 No. 3 March 1948, pp. 416-425
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THE PEDIATRICIAN AND THE PUBLIC

Editors: EDWARDS A. PARK.

Maryland has developed a highly effective instrument for analyzing and developing plans to meet health and medical needs through the standing Committee on Medical Care of the State Planning Commission. One of the recommendations of this committee has resulted in development of a Medical Care Program for low income groups in the counties. Administration of this program has been worked out jointly by the Health Department, which is the administrative agency, and the professional groups which are called upon to provide the services. The program assures persons in low income groups of access to a type and quantity of medical care which is about on a par with the care which is generally available in the community for patients who can afford to pay. Physicians are assured of reasonable payment for their services to this group, and are thus relieved of a heavy burden of charity practice. Through development of new diagnostic laboratory facilities in branch laboratories of the Health Department, development of consultation clinics, and through extension of bedside nursing care, the program promises to have a favorable influence on the quality of care provided. The program offers numerous other opportunities for experimentation in methods of improving the quality of medical care.

The endorsement of the program by the medical profession represents an important landmark in Maryland. It represents the finding of a common ground of agreement as regards medical care between the State government and the medical profession. The responsibility of government to provide care for the medically indigent is clearly recognized, and a framework is established for a developing partnership between government and the profession, with the goal of bringing high quality care to a group of the population who in the past have received grossly inadequate medical care. The importance of this common ground of agreement between government and the medical profession cannot be overemphasized.

The discussion of public medical care has frequently been so inflamed by proposals totally unacceptable to professional groups that many have gained the impression that cooperation toward a common goal is impossible. Professional groups resist sweeping proposals placing government in a dominant position in medicine because they are afraid of what it will do to them as individuals and as professional groups. This seeming impasse can be resolved if agreement can be achieved on limited programs and if government can administer these limited programs in such a way as to provide improved services through administrative methods acceptable to physicians, dentists, and hospitals. Mutual confidence of professional groups and government will be gained, not by angry debate, but by cooperative exploration of areas of agreement.