The Cost of Doctoring

The American Medical Association's economics expert, Dr. Frank G. Dickinson, announced a comforting conclusion last week: the cost of medical care in the U.S. has not gone up as far or as fast as the cost of living. Using Department of Labor figures, Dr. Dickinson claimed that the cost of medical care (including drugs) for the year 1949 was 45% higher than in the "normal" years of 1935-39, while the cost of living was up 69%.

Included in the overall medical figure were doctors' fees, up 38%; dentists' fees, up 51%; prescriptions, up 37%; and hospital rates, up 127% (but the average stay in hospital was shorter, so that the patient's bill went up only 67%).

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