Physical Impairments of Members of Low-Income Farm Families: 11,490 Persons in 2,477 Farm Security Administration Borrower Families, 1940: I. Characteristics of the Examined Population. II. Defective Vision as Determined by the Snellen Test and Other Chronic Eye Conditions

Under the ominous title “Rehearsal for State Medicine,” the 17 December 1938 issue of the Saturday Evening Post told its readers about a new health program sponsored by the Farm Security Administration (FSA), a New Deal agency that provided low-interest “rehabilitation loans” to low-income farmers. As an outgrowth of the loan program, the FSA had established cooperative health plans that, for a small annual fee, allowed FSA clients to receive affordable health care. But according to the article's co-authors—Samuel Lubell and Walter Everett—there was much more to the FSA health pro-gram. “What the FSA is doing,” Lubell and Everett claimed, “affords a rare glimpse into what the future might bring.” Their article appeared in the midst of a national debate over health care reform and only months after President Franklin Roosevelt had convened hundreds of doctors, social workers, and public health reformers for a National Health Conference. Charged with the task of making recommendations for a national health program, the conference produced a final report that suggested a range of public policies that might make health care more affordable and accessible. Most controversially, the final report called upon lawmakers to consider creating a program of government-sponsored health insurance. “Though Congress and the nation are debating the prickly issue of state medicine,” Lubell and Everett noted with obvious disapproval, “one Federal agency [the FSA] has jumped the legislative gun and initiated its own program of socialized medicine.” Although they would have rejected the term “socialized medicine,” the architects of the FSA health plans had indeed envisioned a “rehearsal” of sorts.

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Development of Medical Care Plans for Low Income Farm Families —Three Years' Experience

American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health ◽

10.2105/ajph.30.7.725 ◽

1940 ◽

Vol 30 (7) ◽

pp. 725-735 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

R. C. Williams

Keyword(s):

Medical Care ◽

Low Income ◽

Farm Families ◽

Care Plans

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Can Improved Diet Contribute to the Prevention of Cataract?

Nutrition and Health ◽

10.1177/026010609601100201 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 87-104 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Margaret Wynn ◽

Arthur Wynn

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Amino Acids ◽

Low Income ◽

B Vitamins ◽

Reliable Information ◽

Industrial Chemicals ◽

Riboflavin Deficiency ◽

Longitudinal Surveys ◽

Defective Vision

British adults who were disabled by defective vision were estimated to number 1.668 million in 1988. Cataract is a most important cause of disability and blindness. Cataract develops earlier in life in populations with low income and inferior education. Cataract was shown to be associated with riboflavin deficiency in animals in the 1930s and subsequently with deficiencies of amino acids, vitamins and some minerals. In Britain and the U.S.A. there is a substantial spread in the intake of these micronutrients, the antioxidants and B vitamins, which have been shown to have low intakes in patients at higher risk of cataract. But there is little reliable information on the comparative importance of different micronutrients in Britain and longitudinal surveys relating diet to progression of cataract are recommended, which should also include non-nutrient risk factors for cataract such as smoking, medication and industrial chemicals.

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