support for H.R. 3927, a bill "To enable the District of Columbia to participate in the health and medical assistance benefits made available by the Social Security Amendments of 1965, and for other purposes". The Planning Council was established in April, 1962 with the assistance of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and under the sponsorship of the Metropolitan Council of Governments. It is a nonprofit voluntary organization. Serving as volunteers, citizens from the local jurisdictions that constitute the Washington Metropolitan Area make up its 21-member Board of Directors. The Council's central objective is to consider community-wide health needs in broad prospective and to give leadership in encouraging coordinated planning for use and development of health facilities for the metropolitan community. This is done through the compilation and sharing of information, developing guidelines for health facility planning, and offering advisory opinions and consultation on request. In common with other organizations and groups working for improved health services and programs, the Council believes it vitally important that the District be able to qualify for the additional Federal financial aids that first became available under title XIX of the Social Security Act in January 1966. We are informed that the District's present level of expenditures for medical assistance would earn it about $8.4 million annually in additional Federal funds. But aside from the general program improvement that such additional financing would make possible, there are several reasons why District participation in the title XIX program is important from the point of view of the particular objectives of the Planning Council. The new program of Federal aid for medical assistance is framed, as a matter of national policy, to encourage effective use of acceptable alternatives to inpatient care in acute general hospitals. Better financing for a broad spectrum of health services-from early care and preventive outpatient services to posthospital services that would facilitate earlier discharge planning—would encourage development of a balanced system of health services that could cut down increasing rates of utilization for more costly facilities intended for acute inpatient care. Without adequate financing for such alternative types of health and medical care, a full range of such services has been slow to develop. "Vendor payments" for health services provided by private voluntary and other nonpublic agencies and by physicians and other health professionals in private practice, as is the policy under title XIX medical assistance plans, will tend to reduce requirements for public programs and facilities that would duplicate the medical and health resources used by the community at large. At the same time, reimbursement for services on "reasonable cost" basis, as title XIX requires (by next July) for inpatient services, is likely to become a pervasive policy throughout the plan whenever that method of payment is appropriate to the particular service involved. The purchase of health services on a reasonable cost basis is highly desirable to permit those facilities which are important community health resources to operate on a sound fiscal basis. Moreover, annual deficits that require "crash" fund raising from community contributions deter sound program development in response to changing patterns of medical care and change in community requirements for particular types of services. The Planning Council very much hopes that the Congress will give favorable consideration to H.R. 3972, so that the District can meet the conditions of approval under the new Federal grant program. Sincerely yours, WILLIAM T. HANNAN. Hon. JOHN L. MCMILLAN, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION, DEAR MR. MCMILLAN: Enclosed is a letter to Mr. John Dowdy, Chairman of Subcommittee 3 of the House District Committee, urging his support of HR 3972 which would enable the District to take the necessary steps to qualify for federal matching funds under Title 19 of the 1965 Social Security Amendments. You, probably more than any other Member of Congress, are aware of the many needs facing the District and its citizens, and adequate health care is among the most critical. Our Association will be most appreciative for whatever support you can give on HR 3972, both within the Subcommittee and within your District Committee. We perceive this Bill as a means of your helping us to help ourselves as part of our total effort to become a model for the States and a place of which all Americans can be proud. Thank you for your support in helping to make the District a healthier community. Sincerely, Hon. JOHN DOWDY, RAYMOND M. TAYLOR, Executive Director. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION, Chairman, Subcommittee 3 of the House District Committee, DEAR MR. DOWDY: As a community agency vitally concerned with the health and welfare of the people of the District, the District of Columbia Tuberculosis Association respectfully requests favorable consideration of HR 3972 by your Subcommittee. We have long been concerned about a number of restrictions placed on eligibility of needy persons with respect to both tuberculosis and those suffering with chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. While passage of HR 3972 by the Congress will not insure the elimination of barriers it will be a major step toward reducing restrictions and save unnecessary suffering and aid in reducing the spread of tuberculosis. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, RAYMOND M. TAYLOR, Executive Director. Hon. JOHN DOWDY, IONIA R. WHIPPER HOME, INC., Member of Congress, Chairman, District of Columbia Subcommittee No. 3, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. DOWDY: This concerns our support for HR3972, the bill to enable the District of Columbia to participate in the health and medical assistance benefits available under Title XIX of the amended Social Security Act, now before your Committee. The need for this legislation was discussed and carefully considered at the March 18, 1967 meeting of the Board of Directors of the Ionia R. Whipper Home. It was unanimously approved at that time. We feel its passage would give the District Commissioners a rational basis for upgrading health services and medical care, bringing our community up to the national standards envisaged by the Congress when the 1965 Social Security amendments were approved. As a private community agency serving unwed mothers, the Ionia R. Whipper Home would not necessarily derive direct benefit from approval of HR3972. But the very specialized nature of our services makes us acutely aware of the broader health and medical problems low income families in this community face. Therefore, we strongly urge that this first step-passage of HR3972-be taken in order to open ways for improving the level of health in the District of Columbia. Sincerely yours, ELIZABETH M. GOODMAN, WASHINGTON HOSPITAL CENTER, Hon. JOHN DOWDY, Chairman, House District Subcommittee No. 3, MY DEAR MR. DOWDY: The Board of Trustees of the Washington Hospital Center takes this opportunity to express strong support for the enactment of HR 3972, "to enable the District of Columbia to participate in the health and Medical assistance benefits made available by the Social Security Amendments of 1965, Public Law 89-97". Enactment of HR 3972 would enable the District of Columbia to share in the Federal aid for improved programs of medical assistance that was made available as a matter of national policy by the enactment of the Social Security Amendments of 1965. Twenty-eight States and Territories now have new medical assistance plans approved under Title XIX of that Act. Some of these States, like the District of Columbia, have had to seek revision of the statutory framework of their taxsupported health care programs before they could meet the conditions of approval under the new Federal grant program. HR 3972 would authorize the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia to establish by regulation the policies and procedures that are necessary steps before the District can obtain the Federal matching grant that first became available on January first of last year. Our Board therefore strongly supports enactment of HR 3972, and earnestly urge your favorable consideration for HR 3972. Very sincerely, GILBERT HAHN, Jr., President, Board of Trustees. THE CHRIST CHILD SOCIETY, INC., Hon. JOHN DOWDY, Chairman, House District Subcommittee No. 3, Washington, D.C. DEAR CONGRESSMAN DOWDY: The Christ Child Society endorses and recommends the enactment of HR 3972 "to enable the District of Columbia to participate in the health and medical assistance benefits made available by the Social Security Amendments of 1965, Public Law 89-97". We strongly support enactment of HR 3972, and earnestly urge your favorable consideration for the bill. Sincerely yours, MARGARET S. HEADLEY Mrs. Albert J. Headley, President. CLARK, THOMAS, HARRIS, DENIUS & WINTERS, Congressman JOHN DOWDY, House of Representatives, DEAR MR. DOWDY: Officers from the local Travis County Tuberculosis Association asked me to contact you in regard to H.R. 3972. As I understand it, the District of Columbia Tuberculosis Association is supporting passage of H.R. 3972, which is intended "to enable the District of Columbia to participate in the health and medical assistance benefits made available by the Social Security Amendments of 1965, Public Law 89-97." This is Title 19 of Medicaid. The bill would authorize the appointed board of commissioners of the district to modify regulations and rules as a first step in obtaining matching Medicaid funds. While I am not fully advised as to this Bill, if you are in a position to support it, I would appreciate your consideration thereof. Sure enjoyed visiting with you on the way back to Texas the other day. Also, on my next trip to Washington perhaps I will have time to come by for a brief visit. With kindest personal regards and many thanks, I remain, Sincerely yours, FRANKLIN W. DENIUS. Hon. JOHN DOWDY, PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON, D.C., INC., March 29, 1967. Chairman, House District Subcommittee No. 3, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR CONGRESSMAN DOWDY: The Planned Parenthood Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. wishes to be placed on record as strongly in support of the enactment of HR 3972 "to enable the District of Columbia to participate in the health and medical assistance benefits made available by the Social Security Amendments of 1965, Public Law 89-97." In our 31 years of service to District of Columbia residents, we have developed a deep awareness of and concern for their well-being. We are convinced that comprehensive medical care should be available for needy people regardless of age. Passage of HR 3972 would go far in making this possible. We believe, moreover, that voluntary family planning service should be a routine part of maternal health care. However, among the more than 25,000 D.C. women in the low-income bracket who are of child-bearing age, only around 14,000 obtained this service in 1966 through Public Health, Planned Parenthood and voluntary hospital clinics. The National Academy of Science reported in "Growth of U.S. Population," in 1965, that "the available evidence indicates that low-income families do not want more children than do families with higher incomes, but they have more because they do not have the information or the resources to plan their families effectively according to their own desires." It is entirely conceivable, then, that there are still thousands of District women who might plan their families if they had freedom of choice as to where they would receive medical care. Many might prefer to receive family planning assistance from a private physician, rather than from a private health agency or from Public Health. This freedom of choice of service should be as fundamental as freedom to choose to plan a family. Passage of HR 3972 would enable these choices to be more adequately met. For these reasons, we of Planned Parenthood urge you to pass favorably on this important measure. Sincerely yours, Mrs. DONALD HISS, President. the Planned Parenthood Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ASSOCIATION FOR MENTAL HEALTH, INC., Hon. JOHN DOWDY, DEAR CONGRESSMAN DOWDY: The District of Columbia Association for Mental Health is submitting its testimony in support of HR 3972 in writing rather than appearing at the April 4th Hearings. Will you please include the statement below in the record? The District of Columbia Association for Mental Health supports HR 3972 This measure would authorize the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to take the necessary action in amending rules and regulations to permit the District to qualify for federal reimbursement and costs of medical assistance made available under Title XIX of Public Law 89-97. Within the last several years, our Association has given strong support to the development of regional mental health centers for the city, as authorized by a 1963 Act of Congress. When the plan is fully implemented, there will be four such mental health centers, each to be a part of a comprehensive health center designed to provide full medical services to a given section of the city. It is intended that these centers will not only relieve the burden of existing hospital facilities, both general and psychiatric, but also provide badly needed services to those who heretofore have not received any treatment. The comprehensive health center program, including the mental health component, is an ambitious plan for the city, but in order to make it work successfully we must ensure that the centers will be able to provide the required treatment to all those who need it, regardless of their ability to pay. Without such assurance, the success of the regional health center concept will be in doubt. HR 3972 affords the opportunity to provide such assurance in the area of general medical care-and we are hopeful that the basic Act will be amended so as to provide assistance through Title XIX for treatment in mental facilities as well as general hospitals. We know that one important key to a prosperous and productive society is a health community, both physically and mentally. We know that we do not now have that situation here in Washington. Participation in Title XIX will be one long stride toward achieving this goal. Therefore, we strongly urge approval of HR 3972. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, JONAS V. MORRIS, Chairman, Legislative Committee. Hon. JOHN DOWDY, HELP FOR RETARDED CHILDREN, INC., Chairman, House District Subcommittee No. 3, DEAR CONGRESSMAN DOWDY: Help for the Retarded Children, Inc., wishes to go on record as strongly supporting the enactment of H.R. 3972, "to enable the District of Columbia to participate in the health and medical assistance benefits made available by the Social Security Amendments of 1965, Public Law 89-97". Enactment of H.R. 3972 would support and complement our program in the caring, training, rehabilitation and community placement of mentally retarded children, adolescents and adults. We have many clients who cannot afford to pay anything for our services. Establishment of a medicaid program would free monies for some families of our clients and for other clients, the medicaid program would directly help and facilitate a more complete rehabilitation and thus get the client placed into the community at a more rapid rate. Our experience with trained retardates has shown that they become excellent employees, are able to support themselves and contribute tax wise to the community instead of being supported by the community. The medicaid program would, therefore, make it possible to offer our services to more people who are in need of them. It is for the above reasons that Help of Retarded Children, Inc. strongly supports enactment of H.R. 3972 and we earnestly urge your favorable consideration. Very sincerely, DAVID SILBERMAN, Executive Director. PREVENTION OF BLINDNESS SOCIETY OF METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON, Hon. JOHN DOWDY, Chairman, House District Subcommittee No. 3, DEAR CONGRESSMAN DOWDY: I am writing to urge passage of HR-3972, which we feel is very important to the health and welfare of this community. Our Society feels that this enabling bill is fundamental to our particular objective, the saving of eyesight, and we hope that your committee will give it favorable consideration. Sincerely, HELEN CURTIS DEMARY, Executive Director. |