This issue of The Journal carries two articles on Medicare—the Social Security Health Insurance for the Aged program. One, "Medicare and Medical Students" (p 333) is the report of a survey of students at four medical schools regarding their opinions on Medicare and the changes they expected it to bring. The other, "Medicare: Its Problems for Practicing Physicians" (p 347) is an analysis by Russell B. Roth, MD, Chairman of the Council on Medical Service, of the Medicare program and the problems it may raise as it impinges on the private practice of medicine.
At first glance, these two articles appear only loosely related. The first examines, in a very general way, whether the students feel Medicare will be detrimental or beneficial to the nation, to medicine as a whole, to certain types of practice, and to their own futures as physicians. Dr. Roth's paper, on the other hand, examines