National Health Insurance

Sir.—The January issue of the Journal contained a well-written marginal comment by Dr A. Frederick North (131:17, 1977) regarding the Javits and Scheuer proposals for national health insurance for mothers and children. This article explained the plans well and was generally fair and to the point. Dr North, however, barely referred to the "fee schedule as of 1974" aspect and omitted rebuttals to some long-standing arguments.

Buried within parentheses in a paragraph near the end was the comment: "Fee schedules would be set annually by panels of providers... and would routinely be approved by the Maternal and Child Health Board if they were no higher than prevailing fees in December 1974 adjusted for cost-of-living or other indices of inflation." It seems obvious to this practicing physician that, since 1974, our medical liability insurance costs have doubled or tripled; costs for automobile, home, and office fuel have soared; postage rates