"Welfare Island"

How is the British National Health Service Act working out? Editor John W. McPherrin of the American Druggist (circ. 57,000) decided to see for himself.

In five weeks he traveled 1,600 miles around England, Scotland & Wales. Lugging a 28-lb. tape-recording machine, greying Editor McPherrin, 51, took down the opinions of Britons in pubs and chemists' shops. He lost ten of his 155 pounds, never paused for sightseeing, and brought back enough material to fill the whole July issue of his magazine. Net observation: the Health Act, which went into effect just a year ago, is popular with most Britons but is bad for them. Britain, McPherrin concluded, has become "Welfare Island."

It is too early to tell what the plan has done for British health, but in an editorial called "The State Is My Shepherd" McPherrin says that there are "definite signs that it has done something to their faith in themselves." If the U.S. should ever adopt the same kind of a scheme, "we must be prepared to accept the same increases in taxes and government controls. But of much greater significance is the depressing effect upon the spirit of the people. Britons want security, but we do not think they have found it . . . To the extent that any man accepts the doctrine that the State alone can bring him security and happiness, he will lose faith in himself."

British workers are just beginning to get uneasy about the health plan and the controls it brought, McPherrin says, but they are still for it. "When prodded into discussing the cost of the service to him as a taxpayer, the worker begins to realize that he does not know much about the cost and this fact worries him . . . But he is not ready to turn against the health scheme. Even if he were, there is no place for him to turn."

There is one point on which McPherrin agrees with Health Minister Aneurin ("Nye") Bevan, with whom he talked. To work effectively, such a government health plan needs "complete centralized control." Concludes McPherrin: "I don't think many Americans would be willing to grant that much control because they are not used to that type of government."

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