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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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pass the House it had to be reintroduced and it failed in the Senate the second time because of the AMA's opposition. But the small-mindedness and the lack of vision on the part of medical school deans is very disillusioning to me.

Senator Murray introduced a bill that I had always been interested in called The Survey of Sickness Bill again in '51 and Congressman Fogarty introduced it in April of '51 in the House, but because of the AMA activity we got no action on that, not even to make a survey of what sickness there was in the United States, the main causes of death and disability; they didn't even want that.

Q:

On what basis did they reject that?

Lasker:

Well, they got Senator Ives, who was on the subcommittee, confused about its merits and dangers and he objected to it and the bill didn't get out of committee, although it had passed the Senate in '49.

Q:

What possible dangers could...

Lasker:

The opposition of the medical associations, that was the only danger.

Now, this was in the spring and we still hadn't got a health commission appointed. On the first of May I sailed for France on the Queen Mary with Albert. I didn't return until





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