TRENDS IN HEALTH LEGISLATION AND ADMINISTRATION
ON March 21 the Hoover Commission's final report on the reorganization of the Government's medical and hospital services was submitted to the Congress. The report prepared by the bi-partisan l2-man Commission is not in accord with the proposal to create a cabinet department of welfare which would include the present functions of the Federal Security Agency—a proposal which is incorporated into a House bill (H. R. 782) and, as stated in this column a month ago, has been approved by the House Committee to which it was referred. In contrast to H. R. 782, the Hoover Commission recommends a new cabinet department to direct the welfare and educational program of the Federal Government and a new and separate United Medical Administration. The UMA would be responsible directly to the President and should, according to the Commission, be headed by "the ablest medical and health administrator whose services can be obtained by the government," with three assistant administrators and an advisory board composed exclusively of Federal officials. It is noteworthy that the qualifications recommended for the person who should head the UMA does not specify that he should be a doctor of medicine. The cabinet department, for which no name has as yet been proposed, would have jurisdiction over the Bureau of Old Age and Survivor's Insurance, the Bureau of Public Assistance, the Children's Bureau, the Bureau of Education, the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation, the American Printing House for the Blind, the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.