(2004-09-21) Long Lodge Healthcare

Roderick T Long on the cheap HealthCare provided by Mutual Aid associations before they were outlawed by Big Government and Trade Guild-s like the AMA. "Lodge practice" refers to an arrangement, reminiscent of today's HMO-s, whereby a particular society or lodge would contract with a doctor to provide medical care to its members... Most remarkable was the low cost at which these medical services were provided. At the turn of the century, the average cost of "lodge practice" to an individual member was between one and two dollars a year. A day's wage would pay for a year's worth of medical care. By contrast, the average cost of medical service on the regular market was between one and two dollars per visit. Yet licensed physicians, particularly those who did not come from "big name" medical schools, competed vigorously for lodge contracts, perhaps because of the security they offered; and this competition continued to keep costs low... Medical societies like the AMA imposed sanctions on doctors who dared to sign lodge practice contracts. This might have been less effective if such medical societies had not had access to government power; but in fact, thanks to governmental grants of privilege, they controlled the medical licensure procedure, thus ensuring that those in their disfavor would be denied the right to practice medicine.