By KNOWLES Even watching a football game in a pouring rain doesn't dampen the spirits of Weber College rooters, who seem to be contended with watching the Wildcats from under umbrellas. And the team never fails to give the crowd something to cheer about. Here is proof that Weber ball carriers never stop running; they just carry tacklers along with them. By KNOWLES Page eighteen I Know What This Country Needs By Mildred Leckman Of course I am not the only person who knows what this country needs. Dr. Thomas Parran knew, when at the beginning of this year he said, "My hope is that 1948 will bring equal health opportunities for everyone." What this country needs is a more complete emphasis upon medical care! There are too many sick people who are receiving no medical aid at all. Many are dying because they cannot afford the high cost. If a common man, a wage-earner, suffers from a pain in his stomach, he should immediately consult a physician and get to the source of his suffering at once. He almost never does this. There is usually only one reason for his not seeing a doctor. That is, he cannot afford it. The victim usually decides to endure his pain and let nature take care of it. Sometimes the pain goes away in a short time, but on the other hand the man may suffer from a ruptured appendix. Death can and does result in such cases. This can be the result to a man who has little or no money reserve. Many say that it is not for government to offer free medical care to the people. Perhaps not in the main. But we cannot have a properly healthy democracy as long as people are ruined for life because of need for a simple operation. And often a simple operation, such as an appendectomy, makes the patient a debtor for life. Time spent in the hospital, cost of anesthetics, operating room, dressings, doctor bill and loss of time from work add up to a figure that can be disastrous. If a man is hurt at work, his bills are probably taken care of, and he suffers only in his loss of work to a certain extent. His compensation may not quite make up for his pay check. But if he is hurt during the other two-thirds of his time, he finds himself in a serious situation. For a well-to-do person there is no problem. He simply calls a doctor and arranges for treatment. However, the average man must be seriously ill before he will summon a physician. The time that elapses between the accident or first sign of illness and the time that a doctor is summoned is often most crucial in treatment. An injury or disease may be overcome if combated in time, but if the injury or sickness is aggravated and allowed to secure a foothold, full recovery is postponed and may become impossible. For the good of the democracy as a whole, we therefore must have system in giving medical care. The wage-earner, outnumbering by far the other two classes, is lucky to have the money to pay the ordinary costs of maintaining home and family. He is the most important person in our democracy, we think, and should be taken care of among the first. But save in certain rather infrequent circumstances he is left out in the cold, with at best incomplete coverage of his health needs. "Today, America is not the world's healthiest nation," says Dr. Parran, U. S. surgeon general. "At its best, our medical care is unsurpassed; but too many areas lack that 'best.' His hope for 1948 included the wish "to see every city neighborhood and every rural community with a modern, well-equipped health center through which doctors, dentists, nurses and sanitary engineers could work together to prevent as well as cure illness. . . . For more serious cases, a District Hospital would serve several centers. For difficult cases, most states would have a Medical Center, with medical, dental and nursing schools and research facilities." On the subject of cost and his view as to who should meet the cost, he is tactful but at the same time definite. "In 1948, I hope that ways will be found to bring the best medical care to those millions of men, women and children who are now denied it because they lack funds to meet the cost." Dr. Parran, no doubt, along with many others, has this same wish for 1949. Dr. Parran is quoted throughout from Coronet, January, 1948. Page nineteen