The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

is growing consensus that these quite
different functions should be perform-
ed by different people. The reasons
are so familiar to you that I
shall
not
go into them. They have to do with
making the entire process more simple,
efficient, and dignified on the one
hand, and on the other freeing scarce
manpower to provide services to those
who need them. Several States and ci-
ties have taken, or are contemplating,
steps to separate the operation of these
services. The new Assistance Payments
Administration will be responsible for
developing policies and providing guid-
ance to the States and local agencies
on matters pertaining to cash payments.
The Medical Services Administration
will be responsible for general over-
sight of the setting of standards for
medical services provided under Title
XiX of the Social Security Act-the
State Medical programs.
There will be one commissioner of
the new service in each of the nine
Regions. We believe this will make
things easier for you by giving you
one channel into Washington instead
of four or five.
A word about rehabilitation. I use
the word in its broadest sense. By rehabilitation
I mean giving people the
chance— and the challenge— to develop
their own resources, inter and outer,
\o become as independent and responsible
as possible. I mean giving people
the chance and the challenge to make
the most of their talents and their
lives and to find personal satisfaction
and fulfillment through participation,
to live their lives with some measure
of dignity.
Now let me turn to the proposed
legislation as it was reported out of
the Ways and Means Committee. We
see some great opportunities in it. We
also see some problems. There are
things we wanted that we didn't get,
and things we didn't want that we did
get.
The bill as reported provides for a
new kind of focus on the family as a
total entity. We think this can be all
to the good.
First, the States would be required
to develop a comprehensive plan for
each family, and to review it frequent-
ly. Second, the States would be requir-
ed to provide work and training programs
for welfare recipients deemed
"appropriate" for employment. I'll return
to this point in a moment. And
third, the States would have to provide
greatly enlarged day care and
homemaker services for employed AF-
DC mothers.
The comprehensive plan drawn up
for each family would be based on
an evaluation of the potentialities for
employment of family members over
sixteen who are not in school, the
health and educational training needs
they might have, and the welfare of
the children. If the evaluations are well
and carefully done, if their goals are
broader than the achievement of employment
alone, and if the resulting
plans are realistically and imaginative-
ly laid, many families now on public
assistance will find new hope, nev/
confidence, new stability, and a new
opportunity to become productive and
participating— with $\\ the increase in
personal satisfaction and happiness that
goes with it.
With respect to employment, we
have had encouraging success. Based
on the work-experience programs that
have been operating for a couple of
years, we have every reason to believe
that there are many more individuals
who want to be and can be trained
and employed.
It is perfectly obvious that not all
mothers would wish to, or should, or
could, work full-time, or perhaps even
8 THE HEALTH BULLETIN September, 1967