The Sweet bill increases the class of bene ficiaries to include uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and per sons who may have stood in loco parentis to the insured for a period of one year preceding the issuance of the policy.
The Wason bill goes even further; it abso lutely abolishes any limitation as to beneficiary and makes a United States Government Insur ance policy negotiable in exactly the same way that conunercial policies are negotiable.
The class of persons privileged to carry government insurance is comparatively small, and once that privilege is finally lost it is lost for all time. If a man seelcs counsel on his insurance and it is suggested' to him to allow his government contract to lapse and take out some other insurance contract, that man has suffered a gross injustice.
Under the Sweet bill single men would re ceive $80 a month, instead of $30 as provided by the original act; those with a wife, $90 in stead of $45; those with a wife and one child, $95 instead of $5; those with a wife and two or more children $100 instead of $65; those with out a wife, but having one child, $90 instead of $40, with $5 additional allowed for each of two additional children. Partial disability. is to be rated by a percentage of the foregoing, and it shall equal ethe degree of reduction in earning capacity.' The compensation provisions of the Wason bill are even more generous. For a disabled man without wife or child $80 a month is al lowed; if he has a wife and no child, $95; a wife and one child $105; a wife and two chil dren, $112.50; and $5 additional for each child above two; if there is no wife, but one child, $&5; no wife, but two children, $92.50; no wife, but three children, $100; no wife, but four children, $110, and $5 additional for each addi tional child.
Closely related to the Compensation Divi sion, though distinct in its own province, and certainly very near to the hearts of all who are interested in service men, is the Medical Divi sion. Properly speaking, though the Bureau of War Risk Insurance is charged with the physi cal aid and relief of all men discharged by the army, navy and marine corps as physically un fit, the bureau has no hospitals. There are, however, numerous hospitals owned by the Treasury Departtnent and operated by the United States Public Health Service. In these hospitals as well as in various private hospitals disabled service men are receiving treattnent. Just before the 66th Congress adjourned its pecial session in 1919 an appropriation of ,000,000 was made for the purchase or build ing and equipment of hospitals to be owned by the Treasury, and operated by the United States Public Health Service, especially for War Risk patients The program outlined at that time seemed ample for all possible needs. As time
has gone on, however, it has been made evident that vastly greater preparation for the treat ment of men discharged because of disability will have to be made. It is not unlikely that Congress will be asked to make a considerably larger appropriation for this purpose.
Probably it will be necessary in time to add to the hospital facilities now available, on ac which must be deducted the profit of $17,124, 903.84 made in the marine insurance division, which reduces the net cost of administration up to 30 June 1919 to less than $2,000,000.
The following table gives the monthly premium rates on each $1,000 of war risk insurance.
count of the fact that several thousand disabled men will shortly be discharged from army hos pitals and turned over to the Bureau of War Risk Insurance as compensation and hospital cases. Months of treatment to effect a cure will be required in a large number of those cases in which cure may be possible. Unfortu nately there is a distressingly large number of these cases for which institutional care must be considered as permanently necessary. Besides, there are those men who were discharged from the service as physically unfit before being as signed to permanent units.
Early in the summer of 1918, with the idea of standardizing the physical fitness of the army, there was a general weeding out process m the training. camps all over the country. As a result of this, more than 170,000 men who had not completed their work in the training camps were sent back to civil life. Of this number more than 25,000 were tubercular cases. Some of these cases had developed from pneumonia and 4flu,)) but so many of them had developed without any exact cause to which the naalady might be assigned, that the assumption among army medical men was that a large number of them had been latent or incipient at the time the men were accepted by their local boards. There were approximately 3,500 cases of dis charge because of epilepsy, and the list of causes for discharge on account of physical dis ability runs the whole gamut of human ills. In time, all of these cases will be submitted to the Bureau of War Risk Insurance for hospital treatment to which every man discharged be cause of physical disability is entitled: The cost of administering the bureau to 30 Tune 1919 was aonroximatelv $19.000,000, from The Bureau of 'War Risk Insurance was e.stablished and is conducted for the benefit of our soldiers, sailors and marines. It exists for and because of them, and. its sole concern is to serve them promptly, efficiently and with under standing of the needs of each particular case,