Cincinnati's Dr. Arthur G. King, an obstetrician with an eye for Labor Department statistics, sharply disagrees with the complaint that doctors' bills are out of control. Compared to the other costs, he argued last week in Medical Economics, medical expenses have actually dropped. Back in 1936, as Dr. King figures it, an electrician had to work 2½ hours to pay for a physician's daytime house call. In 1956 it took him only 1½ hours. To pay for an appendectomy in 1936, a plumber had to work 73½ hours v. a mere 44 in 1956. But the general practitioner who needed 1.28...
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