726 



at 1.9 niiJlioii dollai-s '"'' (moanwhilo appropriatinir tens of 

 millions for fshoi-t-terin bilateral health aid * '•' '■"■.) ^-'' 



A measure recently passed by Conaress j^ermits onr an- 

 nual a])prC)iiriation for WHO to be increased np to H mil- 

 lion dollars ^^^ * * * this new bill met stiff opposition.^-* 



Such hesitant cooperation is regrettable, for (^onixre'^s, has 

 re]>eatedly demonstrated oi-eat interest in public health. 

 Doubtless this o])position is simply the reflection of a lack 

 of active and informed concern on the part of laymen and 

 most physicians about the subject of international preven- 

 tive medicine.^^ 



Perhaps two hypotheses can I)© derixed from Ixussell's points con- 

 cernine: the prominent role of American leaders in layinjs; the ground- 

 work for WHO and the lack of active and informed concern on the 

 ])art of most American physicians in international preventive medi- 

 cine : ( 1 ) The American leaders involved in the planni ng of WHO were 

 more likely to have been mostly diplomats and specialists in preventive 

 ined'ichie or piihlic healfli. rather than ex{)erts in curative mediehie 

 lolth hidivuJiial patient orientation, the latter dominating the power 

 structure of American medical practice at the time. (2) The concern 

 of American physicians during the planning and Congressional rati- 

 fication of WHO may have involved the implications of health 

 insurance jind socialized medicine in. an international context rather 

 than the problems of preventive medicine on an international scale.^^° 



THE IMPACT OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES ON WHO 



Little in the recent studies available to the Congress concerning 

 international deA'elopment focuses attention adequately on the extent 

 to which poor health impedes social and economic progress of man- 

 kind. The Pearson Report,"^ for example, dismisses international 

 healtli ])roblems in two pages (of some 400), vet conveys the impres- 

 sion of sweeping advances in the control of infectious diseases and the 

 sweeping spread of therapeutic health services worldwide. It credits 

 to "\^TTO achievements which that agency Avould not itself claim; as a 

 practical matter, the unsolved health problems confronting WHO and 

 other international health institutions are extensive and diflficult. 

 Of the report the New England Journal of Medicine states : 



The cursory and grossly inaccurate treatment afforded 

 health is representative of current economic thought.^^^ 



The Jackson Report ^^^ appears to deemphasize the World Health 



12= This action In effect fixed the size of WHO's regular budget, because of the assessment 

 formula. 



1^ Russell, "International Preventive Medicine," op. cit., page 397. 



^^ This action, too, in effect fixed the size of WHO's regular budget. 



1^ Russell, "International Preventive Medicine," op. cit., page 397. 



^ Idem. 



130 Allen, "World Health and World Politics," op. cit, page 27, and Goodman. "Inter- 

 national Health Organization," op. cit., page 20. See also WHO Constitutional Function, 

 "P," Part 11. 



1=^ Lester B. Pearson, "Partners in Development," Report of the Commission on Inter- 

 national Development. (Set up at the request of Robert S. McNamara, President of the 

 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.) (New York, Praeger Publishers, 

 September 15, 1966), pages 12, 40-41. 



13^ "Medical Research as Measured Against the Needs -of All," op. cit., page 537. 



133 "X Study of the Capacity of the United Nations Development System," Vol. 1, (Geneva, 

 United Nations, September 30, 1969). 



