INSURANCE HOSPITALS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14510, 13 November 1909, Page 5

INSURANCE HOSPITALS.

< Sanatorium treatment for policy holders suffering .from consumption is the latest development in American insurance circles. Some months ago a fraternal insurance society, the Modern I Woodmen of America, -opened a sanatorium near Colorado Springs for the free treatment of members of the so* ciety. A ranch of 1300 acres was purchased, buildings erected, a water supply laid on, and 'roads made, the es-> tablishment being put under the control of a specialist itt the op^n-air treatment. Each of the million ir>o.nbers of the society is taxed ten coats a, year for the maintenance of tho s»n»--jannifl. and when the place was opened Metropolitan TnsurWw r Cuuiuaurr^a] of the biggest concerns in the fettles, has takena similar step, but, unfortunately, the New York State Snj-erin-tendent of Insurance obeying th« strict letter of the law regarding the adding of land by insurance companies, has been obliged to veto a prop nwl to buy a tract of land in the Catekill Moantains for a hospital. The superintendent thinks the enlightened public opinion of the day may be reliea upon •to remove this bar. The company, in justification of its proposal, points out that of 18,542 deaths among its policy holders in 1906, 18.8 per cent were from tuberculosis, and of deaths at the ' age of 24, 45 per cent, were due to the same cause. Press comment on the proposal is enthusiastic. One paper points out that the stricken policyholders would gain in longer life, and through the presence of another agency for fighting tuberculosis— an enemy of the human race against which all possible forces should be arrayed. The proposed action by th« insurance company, besides the good that would be done to the individual sufferer, would exert a powerful moral influence, demonstrating in the first place the fact that a tuberculosis sanatorium is a good business proposition, and moving the still hesitating forces of government and philanthrophy to take up the work at once and in earnest."