[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 118 (Friday, July 31, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2143-E2144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          ``WHAT HAPPENED TO MEDICAL CHARITY OF YEARS PAST?''

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                           HON. PHIL GINGREY

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 31, 2009

  Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I submit the following:

            [From the Marietta Daily Journal, July 28, 2009]

            What Happened to Medical Charity of Years Past?

                      (By Cecil Toole, MD (Ret.))

     Re Bill Kinney column, ``Cobb's sick getting well, thanks to 
         Good Samaritan,'' July 19 MDJ
       In 1961 or 1962, I met the original ``Good Samaritans'' of 
     Marietta and Cobb County, when I joined their group as a 
     visiting resident in obstetrics from Piedmont Hospital in 
     Atlanta. All of them were on the staff of a forgotten 
     Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, where they conducted many 
     free pre-natal clinics, free medicines for eligible patients, 
     and free deliveries for those same patients in a hospital 
     that agreed to not charge ``clinic patients'' for hospital 
     service.
       Those mysterious and economically foolish services were 
     done by charitable doctors such as Dr. Meaders, Dr. Reilly, 
     Drs. George and Murl Hagood, Dr. Remer Clark, Dr. Colquitt, 
     Dr. Mussara, Dr. Pete Inglis, Dr. Mainor, Dr. Parker, Dr. 
     W.H. Perkinson, Dr. Looper, Dr. Clingbell, Dr. Stafford, Dr.

[[Page E2144]]

     Mitchell, Dr. McClure and Dr. Clonts, to name a few, without 
     ever sending a bill to their ``clinic patient.'' Ineligible 
     patients might be sent a bill through a collection agency. 
     (And by the way: the IRS never-ever allowed such ``charity'' 
     done by those same doctors, to be deducted.'') I was 
     fascinated to learn how those doctors survived Economics 101 
     when none of their clinic patients needed, or carried, 
     ``affordable health insurance.''
       At Piedmont Hospital where I was a resident, the hospital 
     took care of all of the hospital expenses of the unwed 
     mothers from the Florence Crittenden Home. I was also told 
     that none of them had ``health-insurance.'' I can tell you 
     this. As far as the TLC (Tender Loving Care) given to the 
     ``clinic-patients'' and the ``private patients,'' the 
     treatment from the staff and the nurses was identical. The 
     care was always excellent.
       I hope if you ever get to meet the genius who invented 
     ``affordable health care,'' that you will remember to ask 
     this question, ``Does charity have a place in today's health-
     care?'' The ``Obama Bidens'' don't want, or need, your 
     charity. They insist on asking everybody, including the 
     jobless, the helpless and the hopeless, to pay cash for their 
     own ``health-care'' even if the cash has to be a personal 
     loan from the government.
       Just to show their good intentions, if those indigent 
     groups can't repay their ``medical care'' loans, the great 
     socialist government will identify and prosecute them, for 
     the crime of ``unpaid debts.'' Aren't medical science and 
     ``health-care,'' when mixed with Socialism, wonderful?

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