to their professional organization which has taken a stand opposite that of the medical coworkers. We are particularly interested in the aspects of H.R. 4222 which provide for skilled nursing home services and home health services since these are areas which now are sadly lacking for most persons needing them. Your support of this very vital legislation is most urgently requested. MY DEAR MR. MILLS: The 5,000 members of the Florida Nurses Association support the position the American Nurses Association will be expressing at a forthcoming hearing of your committee on H.R. 4222. In spite of the efforts of individuals and groups opposing this legislation, to have Florida nurses individually reverse their support of the ANA position, this they will not do. We support and will continue to support legislation that would include health insurance under the social security program. We sincerely request that this letter be entered in the record of this hearing. Sincerely yours, MABEL SHEPARD, President. HAWAII NURSES ASSOCIATION, INC., Hon. WILBUR MILLS, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, DEAR REPRESENTATIVE MILLS: The position of the ANA house of delegates regarding the Anderson-King bills is very known to you. The Hawaii Nurses Association at this time would like to voice their support of legislation and reaffirm the position American Nurses Association has taken regarding health insurance benefits for recipients of old-age, survivors, and disability insurance. We urge favorable consideration of this legislation. ROSE ANN POYZER, Executive Secretary. ILLINOIS NURSES ASSOCIATION, Representative WILBUR D. MILLS, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR REPRESENTATIVE MILLS: The Illinois Nurses' Association the constituent of the American Nurses Association with a membership of approximately 8,000 nurses in Illinois, wishes to inform you of its support for the AndersonKing legislation to include health insurance benefits within the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance program. We are particularly pleased to see that skilled nursing home services and intermittent home nursing care are included, since nursing care, particularly in the home, is a major need of the elderly. The American Nurses Association, of which we are a part, supports health insurance under the social security program, and Illinois delegates to the 1958 and 1960 ANA conventions voted unanimously in support of this position. Cordially, ANNE ZIMMERMAN, Executive Secretary. Representative WILBUR MILLS, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, IOWA NURSES' ASSOCIATION, DEAR REPRESENTATIVE MILLS: The position of the Iowa Nurses' Association as regards the King bill, H.R. 4222, remains unchanged. We support the stand taken by the American Nurses Association in the house of delegates in 1958 and reaffirmed in 1960 in favor of the extension of OASDI to include health insurance for its beneficiaries. Yours very truly, MARION PATCH, President, Iowa Nurses' Association. KANSAS STATE NURSES' ASSOCIATION, Representative WILBUR MILLS, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, DEAR CONGRESSMAN MILLS: I take pleasure in writing to you regarding the legislative plans for health insurance under social security. The plan of providing medical care for the aged by extending the social security system is one to which we give hearty approval. Many of the nurses in our association are in close contact with older persons who have illnesses but who do not have the resources to meet the medical bills. We are of the opinion that this problem can best be solved through the extension of social security as provided by the Anderson-King bills. We realize that the medical societies are opposed to this bill. The medical society here in Kansas has attempted to influence nurses to their opinion. Last year several representatives of the medical society contacted me and asked that our association take action opposing the stand taken by the American Nurses Association at the 1958 and 1960 conventions. I would like to quote from an editorial in the June 1961 issue of the American Journal of Nursing in reference to this type of harassment by the medical societies. "One has the uneasy feeling that doctors do not recognize that they, themselves, through planning tactics of this kind, are actually mixing up politics and medicine in their very efforts to fend it off. For, in a sense, they are taking advantage of the professional working relationships between doctors and nurses-in which doctors certainly have a higher degree of authority on medical questions—to try to sell a point of view on a political issue, not a medical one.” We are glad to learn that representatives from the American Nurses Association will have opportunity to offer testimony at hearings on the King bill, H.R. 4222. These representatives will voice the opinion of nurses in this country, who, through their vote in the house of delegates, have twice given approval of legislation that would include health insurance under the social security program. We would be happy if this letter is entered in the record of the hearings. HULDA O. WEGENER, R.N., KENTUCKY STATE ASSOCIATION OF REGISTERED NURSES, Hon. WILBUR MILLS, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, Louisville, Ky., July 18, 1961. DEAR SIR: In June 1958 the American Nurses Association house of delegates voted to support the extension and improvement of the contributory social insurance to include health insurance for beneficiaries of old-age, survivors, and disability insurance. This position was reaffirmed by the ANA house of delegates in May 1960. During this time the ANA and its constituent associations has been criticized by other associations for their stand. Regardless of the criticism the ANA has held firm to the belief that all people in this country, regardless of their ability to purchase health insurance, should have health services available to them. Sincerely yours, ANNE M. BLACK, R.N., Assistant Executive Secretary. MARYLAND NURSES ASSOCIATION, INC., Hon. WILBUR MILLS, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, DEAR MR. MILLS: The board of directors of the Maryland Nurses Association wishes to bring to your attention the American Nurses Association's endorsement of the principle of extending the social security mechanism to provide health insurance coverage for recipients of old age, survivors, and disability insurance. This position of the ANA was first taken by the house of delegates in 1958 and was reaffirmed at the convention in 1960. The delegates for the Maryland Nurses Association supported the position of the American Nurses Association on both occasions. On July 12, 1961, representatives of the Medical and Chirugical Faculty of the State of Maryland (the State medical society), at their request, were given an opportunity to present to the board of directors of the Maryland Nurses Association the faculty's opinion in opposition to the King bill (H.R. 4222). These representatives appealed for opposition to H.R. 4222 and similar legis lation by the Maryland Nurses Association. However, the board of directors of the Maryland Nurses Association voted unanimously to support the position of the American Nurses Association. The Maryland Nurses Association requests that this letter be entered in the record of the hearings on H.R. 4222. Sincerely yours, DOROTHY L. WHEATLEY, R.N., First Vice President. MICHIGAN STATE NURSES ASSOCIATION, Hon. WILBUR MILLS, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, DEAR SIR: On behalf of the Michigan State Nurses Association, the official organization of professional nurses in Michigan with a membership of some 7,000 members, and a constituent of the American Nurses Association, I wish to inform you that the association is vitally interested in the hearings on the King bill (H.R. 4222) which will begin July 24, 1961. One of our primary responsibilities as the official nurses association in Michigan is "to promote legislation and to speak for nurses in regard to legislative action concerning general health and welfare programs." In 1960 the Michigan State Nurses Association presented a statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Subcommittee on Problems of the Aged and Aging. In this statement we pointed out that in 1900 in Michigan, approximately 5 percent of the population was 65 years of age and over. By 1957, this had jumped to 7.3 percent, and by 1970 it is anticipated that the number will increase to 8.4 percent of the State's population. As you well know, Michigan is one of the leading States in population gains. As nurses, we believe that everyone is entitled to the best nursing care possible. It has been stated in various reports that the major problem facing older people is that of financing health care, when the income is lowest and when possible or actual disability is at its highest. Though voluntary health insurance in the United States has had a tremendous growth in the past 20 years, less than half of the older population has any kind of health insurance. This is of vital concern to the members of the nursing profession. We support the principle that each individual should plan for his health care in his older age. We believe that the extension of the Social Security Act is one of the best mechanisms to help to provide for prepaid health care. Each individual should be afforded the opportunity to pay in a dignified manner for his health care which would prevent him from becoming a burden to society and an object of charity. We would also like to point out that professional nursing has been supporting this kind of legislation since 1958 and reaffirmed its stand again at the 1960 American Nurses Association Biennial Convention. We believe that we are morally obligated to seek means to provide better ways of financing health care for these senior citizens. We further believe that the provision of the King bill will help to bring about improved financing of health care for this segment of the population. Sincerely yours, DEAR SIR: The Montana Nurses' Association wishes to advise the members of the 87th Congress that this organization is in agreement with the position of the American Nurses' Association with regard to extending health insurance coverage to recipients of old-age, survivors, and disability insurance as included in the Anderson-King bills. In 1958, the ANA House of Delegates, recognizing that certain groups in our population; namely, the aged, retired, and disabled, do not have adequate protection against the financial hazards of illness, adopted the following resolutions supporting the extension of the social security system to include health insurance coverage for these beneficiaries of the program: "Resolved, That the American Nurses' Association support the extension and improvement of the contributory social insurance to include health insurance for beneficiaries of old-age, survivors, and disability insurance; and be it further "Resolved, That nursing service, including nursing care in the home, be included as a benefit of any prepaid health insurance program." In 1960 the ANA House of Delegates reaffirmed this position and in supporting the extension of social security to include health insurance, indicated its concern for the health needs of many millions of Americans as well as its recognition that nurses have small incomes and on retirement will also be faced with the problems of maintaining a decent standard of living and securing needed medical care services. MNA requests that this letter be entered in the record of the hearings. Miss WAYA L. DIXON, President, MNA. NEW JERSEY STATE NURSES' ASSOCIATION, Newark, N.J., August 14, 1961. Hon. WILBUR D. MILLS, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee, MY DEAR MR. MILLS: The New Jersey State Nurses' Association wishes to go on record supporting the position taken by the American Nurses' Association in support of H.R. 4222 and S. 909. It is our understanding that the hearings on H.R. 4222 and S. 909 were concluded last Friday, but that the records will remain open through August 18 for communications to be included in the records. We would appreciate very much if the following statement from the New Jersey State Nurses' Association could become part of the official record. The New Jersey State Nurses' Association considers that essential health services should be made available to all people in our country without regard to their ability to pay for these services. We are cognizant of the fact that there is a segment of the population-particularly the disabled, retired, and agedwho are neither eligible nor able to avail themselves of voluntary health plans, since prepayment insurance plans have become an effective method of financing health services. The New Jersey State Nurses' Association considered and supports the method introduced by Representative Cecil King (Democrat, of California) and S. 909 introduced by Senator Clinton Anderson (Democrat, of New Mexico), representing extension and insurance for beneficiaries of old-age, survivors, and disability insurance and, also, that appropriate nursing service be included in the nursing care in the home on a prepaid insurance plan. The New Jersey State Nursing Association further wishes to support the principal of having appropriate nursing service in the nursing home in order to insure safe nursing care to those who need to leave their own homes and be placed in private or official nursing homes. Sincerely yours, MARGARET S. MASKREY, R.N., President. NEW MEXICO NURSES' ASSOCIATION, Albuquerque, N. Mex., July 18, 1961. Representative WILBUR MILLS, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR REPRESENTATIVE MILLS: This letter is written to set forth the New Mexico Nurses' Association's support of the position of the American Nurses Association concerning provision of health insurance benefits for recipients of oldage, survivors, and disability insurance. The American Nurses Association House of Delegates in 1958 and again in 1960 voted to support legislation that would include health insurance under the social security program. The New Mexico Nurses' Association emphatically endorses the provisions contained in the King bill, H.R. 4222, and requests that this statement of support be entered in the record of the hearing on this measure. Respectfully, Mrs. BEATRICE C. MARTIN, R.N., Executive Secretary, New Mexico Nurses' Association. Hon. WILBUR D. MILLS, NEW YORK STATE NURSES ASSOCIATION, Albany, N.Y., July 12, 1961. Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. MILLS: We have just learned from the American Nurses Association, of which we are a constituent, that hearings will be held on the King bill, H.R. 4222 beginning July 24, 1961. At the 1960 Convention of the American Nurses Association delegates from New York State unanimously voted to reaffirm the position of the American Nurses Association taken in 1958 which was to support legislation that would include health insurance under the social security program. The resolution adopted in 1958 and reaffirmed in 1960 emphatically and succinctly states our belief and is as follows: "Whereas necessary health services should be available to all people in this country without regard to their ability to purchase; and "Whereas prepayment through insurance has become a major and an effective method of financing health services; and "Whereas certain groups in our population, particularly the disabled, retired, and aged, are neither eligible nor able to avail themselves of voluntary health insurance: Be it therefore |