Atlanta Daily World

Health Bill
Will Improve
Negro Status, Booklet Says

Passage of the Wagner-Murray-Dingell
Measure Urged

NEW YORK - (ANP)- Passage
of the Wagner-Murray-Dingell National Health act will serve
to improve the health of Amer-
ican Negroes as well as other Amer-
icans, according to a recent book-
let published by the International
Workers Order. The Wagner-Murray-Dingell health bill is known in
the senate as S. 1606, and in the
house as H. R. 4730.

The IWO pamphlet written by
Max Bedacht, is entitled "Your
Health-America's Wealth" and ex-
plains that "people with the low-
est incomes suffer more from ill-
ness of various kinds than people
with higher incomes.

The Negro community suffers
especially from the inequalities of
the health care system, or lack of
system, prevailing in the country
today," Bedacht writes. "This is
the inevitable result of social and
economic discrimination.

"The notion that the Negro is
'by nature' more subject to illness
and disease is an ugly racist myth
by the Bilbos and Rankins. Negro
health problems are merely sharp-
ened expressions of the problems
faced by the American community
as a whole. The social character of
the health problem is clearly de-
monstrated in the health figures
pertaining to the Negro popula-
tion."

The general mortality rate for
Negroes is 30 to 40 percent higher
than the rate for whites, said
Bedacht, who is general secretary
of the IWO. Tuberculosis rate in
the crowded Harlem area here for
the past 10 years is four times that
of New York City as a whole, he
stressed while stating that "the
infant mortality rate in Chicago's
so-called black belt is twice as
high as in the rest of the city."

PELLAGRA VICTIMS
Dr. Paul B. Cornely of Howard
University pointed out that six
times as many Negro females, in
comparison to white females, die
from pellagra, which is a disease
of poverty as expressed in poor
nutrition," the pamphlet disclosed,
which is due to "poorer housing,
education and nutrition enjoyed
by Negroes."

Bedacht said that only 2,000 Ne-
gro physicians serve 10 million Ne-
groes in the south, or "one doctor
to every 5,000 persons. It has been
authoritatively estimated that
a
safe health ratio is one doctor for
every 1,500 persons. Approximated-
ly 1,700 Negro dentists serve the
13 million Negroes in the United
States."

There is one hospital bed for
every 10 white persons in the
United States but only "one bed
for every 1,000 Negroes." There are
no hospital beds available for Ne-
gro patients in some southern
communities, Bedacht said.

AID PASSAGE
The Wagner-Murray-Dingell Na-
tional Health bill will have greater
chances of passing by "publicizing
the actual content of the bill and
the national health emergency
which it is designed to meet" by
organizing "broad committees rep-
resenting a variety of civic, labor,
church and fraternal groups; "call-
ing conferences in which the "pur-
pose of the bill can be analyzed
and ways and means of pushing it
be worked out on a community
and professional basis" by obtain-
ing "commitments from congress-
men, state legislatures, city coun-
cils, etc. publicly supporting the
bill; getting individual repre-
sentatives and senators, local phy-
sicians and dentists, newspapers
and radio stations expressing per-
sonal support of S. 1606."

An eye should be kept on social
welfare bills currently before con-
gress, such as "the full employ-
ment bill, the permanent FEPC
bill and the unemployment com-
pensation and minimum wage
bills, S.1050."