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Neglect of high blood pressure can be costly
By CHARLES S. TAYLOR
ATLANTA (UPI) — People who have mild high blood
pressure can expect to spend S2OO a year in medical
expenses, but the cost can shoot up to $5,000 if the disease
goes untreated and leads to a stroke, according to an
expert on hypertension.
Failure to keep appointments and to take medicaion is a
major problem in treating high blood pressure, said Dr.
Albert A. Carr, professor of medicine and chief of the
division of hypertension and clinical pharmacology at the
Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.
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Skilled hands at work
Sonny Bartlett at work at his potter’s wheel in Dovedown Center will be among those
participating in the grand opening of the center Nov. 20-22. Several other craftsmen will
demonstrate their skills during the opening. More pictures on page 22.
Medics fight intervention
DUBLIN, Ga. (UPI) - About
150 Georgia doctors, dentists
and druggists have joined
forces to fight government
‘intervention” into the medical
profession and to attack propos
als for a national health
insurance program.
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“A baby is born with a need to
be loved — and never outgrows
it”
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Gov. Busbee says he won’t yield to pressure politics on taxes
TOCCOA, Ga. (UPD — Gov. George Busbee said today
his 1976 budget is “a two-way street” and that he will not
ask taxpayers to “pick up the price tag of pressure
politics” by giving in to teachers, state employes and
various agencies all wanting a bigger slice of the fiscal
pie.
The governor said he will demand improved
performance in exchange for even the most minimal cost
of-living pay raises, and that a reduction in the state work
force would be the logical way to have more money to
spread among surviving state job holders.
Starting the annual Georgia Chamber of Commerce
prelegislative forum, a traveling roadshow this year
featuring Busbee and Georgia Congressman Dawson
Mathis answering businessmen’s questions, Busbee said
he does not like to take on welfare recipients, teachers,
nursing home operators, or others affected by his $128.4
million in forced budget reductions this year.
“But my duty is to make sure the state of Georgia lives
A group of medical profes
sionals in this central Georgia
city, led by Dr. J. Roy Rowland
Jr., band together to form the
group last September.
“We simply decided some
thing had to be done to stop the
onslaught of bureaucratic inter
vention into the medical profes
sion,” said Harry Powell,
executive director of the
Committee on National Trends,
Ramifications and Origins of
Legislation, Inc. (CONTROL).
“We are not so much against
something as we are for the
private practice of medicine,”
he said Wednesday. “We just
want to let everybody do their
thing and we’ll do our thing.”
Powell, a former business
man, said the group will set out
first to lobby against the
passage of a national health
insurance program.
“We feel like that (national
health insurance) is just
Carr was one of several medical experts who spoke
Wednesday at a one-day symposium on the “Office
Management of Hypertension,” sponsored by the Emory
University School of Medicine, the Medical College of
Georgia, the Georgia Heart Association, the Georgia
Department of Human Resources and the CIBA
Pharmaceutical Company.
He said that in addition to facing a $5,000 bill, a victim’s
income would be cut off if the stroke is disabling.
Carr said he studied 240 patients over a period of one
year to arrive at his average cost figures for the hyperten-
impossible. It has never suc
ceeded anywhere,” Powell said.
“It would simply destroy health
care as we know it in the
United States today.”
He contended that under a
national health insurance sys
tem a doctor “would no longer
have the incentive to work
those long extra hours if he
knows he is only going to be
paid a certain amount.”
He said adequate health care
in the United States “would be
reduced tremendously if natu
ral health care is imposed.
“It would just cause a
natural running away from the
medical profession because of
the overwork and underpay,”
Powell said.
He said Rowland was sche
duled to present CONTROL’S
postion on national health care
Thursday before a U. S. House
Ways and Means subcommitee
on health.
within its means — and I’m not going to ask the people of
Georgia to pick up the price tag of pressure politics,” said
Busbee.
Busbee said the budget he proposes in January will “be
one of forward motion and practical vision,” and ham
mered away at his “two-way street” theme in assessing
areas in which various agencies want more money and the
governor is demanding more service.
“When the education groups ask ‘How much money?,’
I’m going to ask “How much education?,’ It’s a two-way
street,” said Busbee. “I’m going to tell state employes
that I recognize their need for a cost-of-living increase,
but I want the performance level of state government to
increase.
“Frankly,” said Busbee. “I want to get the job done
with fewer and fewer employes — and I think the people
have a right to expect better production for better pay. It’s
a two way street.”
Similarly, he said, doctors and nursing home operators
GRIFFIN
DAI LAT <FNE WS
Daily Since 1872
Weather may be cool
but politics is hot
Wedding ends in killings
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (UPI)
— The radiant bride danced
happily with an assortment of
guests at her wedding recep
tion, but not with her husband.
He was drinking heavily at the
bar.
Suddenly bridegroom Julian
Escorcia staggered across the
dance floor, snatched his wife
Isabel from the arms of her
Spalding Demos
begin revamp
The Spalding County
Democratic Committee last
night elected five delegates to
the 28th district caucus and
made plans to bring the local
Powell said the organization
also plans to get actively
involved in attempting to
prevent the re-election of
congressmen “who are promot
ing national health care in this
country.”
“We mean business every
step of the way. Our message
to Congress is either stay out of
our way or some of them will
be out of Congress after the
next election,” said Powell,
who ran for the Democratic
nomination in the Bth Congres
sional District in 1972 and 1974.
CONTROL plans to hold a
statewide membership meeting
in Macon Dec. 3.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY
54, low today 36, high yesterday
66, low yesterday 58, high
tomorrow in upper 40s, low
tonight in upper 20s.
sion sufferer.
He said medication, physicians fees and other medical
expenses would average $193 a year for people with a mild
form of the disease. And patients with severe high blood
pressure would incur an average cost of $590 a year.
He said the main reason young males drop out of
treatment for high blood pressure after the first office
visit was the anticipated cost.
“But people spend over S2OO a year on cigarettes if they
smoke two packs a day. That S2OO would more than cover
the cost of medication” for some patients.”
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Thursday Afternoon, November 13,1975
dance partner and slapped her.
Isabel Escorcia’s father inter
vened. And in a flash, the
father and his new son-in-law
pulled out pistols and shot each
other. Both fell dead.
Isabel, still in her wedding
dress, suffered a shoulder
wound and was rushed to a
hospital near the small town of
Villanueva, 90 miles northwest
of Managua.
committee into compliance with
the new state charter.
Elected to the caucus were
Dr. John Ellis, Mrs. Norma
Taylor, Vernon Ritchie, Joann
Todd and C. L. Thompson.
Clayton Brown was named
chairman of a rules and
regulations committee. Serving
with him will be L. E. Cato and
Mrs. Taylor.
The three will be responsible
for seeing that the local com
mittee has two representatives
from each voting precinct in the
county as required by the new
charter.
Chairman Jimmy Goolsby
appointed the commiteee.
Dr. Ellis and Dick Hyatt were
appointed to organize a Young
Democrats group here. A
meeting is planned on this for
Dec. 9.
Sid James Beeland was
named to the state’s Af
firmation Action Committee of
the party.
Businessmen Jack Smith and
Kyle Cobb were appointed co
chairmen of fund raising.
The Spalding Democratic
Committee plans its next
meeting Dec. 11. The committee
said its meetings are open to the
public.
will be told he wants to upgrade Medicaid, “but we are
going to have to put the brakes on the program, and keep
it within reasonable proportions” next year. Busbee is
currently cutting back this year’s Medicaid program to
head off a $65 million deficit projection.
“I’m going to tell welfare recipients and Medicaid
recipients that we want to keep operating a program for
their benefit,” he said, “but chiseling, cheating and fraud
are not going to be tolerated — and that’s a two-way
street.”
Busbee said his budget will tell judges, lawyers and
police agencies to start modernizing Georgia’s criminal
justice system, “and that may mean giving up some
cherished ways of doing things, and changing some old
habits. But that’s a two-way street.”
Busbee’s challenge to the school teachers brought a
quick and unhappy response from the Georgia Association
of Educators, which is court seeking reinstatement of
about s4l million in pay raises cut during the $128.4 million
Although the weather
forecast for Griffin tonight
called for a freeze, the city
commission runover race was
red hot.
The latest development in the
contest between Mayor Louis
Goldstein and businessman
Henry Miller prompted a called
meeting of Chamber of Com
merce directors.
The directors reiterated their
policy of not getting involved in
political races.
What created the latest furor
was a letter circulated in Griffin
yesterday addressed to “Dear
Chamber Members.” The letter
supported Mayor Goldstein’s
reelection. It was not signed but
was sent in the name of
“Businessmen Concerned for
Girffin’s Future.”
The Chamber was swamped
with telephone calls yesterday
from some members and
citizens asking about the letter.
President Scott Searcy said
he didn’t know anything about
the letter until he got one
yesterday morning in the mail.
Searcy called a board
meeting this morning and
reviewed policies on the
availability of membership
mailing lists.
Seems that a policy adopted
in 1971 by Chamber directors
permits the availability of the
mailing list for a $2 charge.
The Chamber directors today
prepared a letter to members
pointing out the origin of the
policy under which the mailing
list was made available.
The letter also states:
“The Griffin Area Chamber
of Commerce has not, does not,
and will not in any way endorse
or support any candidate for
public office.”
Asked about the letter yester
day, Mayor Goldstein said he
knew it was being prepared but
that he did not do it. He said
many people were working on
his behalf and were doing many
things to promote his can
didacy.
City voters will decide the
issue next Tuesday.
One of the first things hypertension sufferers are or
dered by their doctors to do is quit smoking, Carr said.
Another speaker, Dr. Leon Goldberg of the Uniersity of
Chiago School of Medicine, said patients will do better if
they understand that the side effects of drugs used to
control hypertension can be reduced.
Goldberg said many effective drugs are now available
for treating high blood pressure and that physicians
“should be able to select a drug or combination of drugs
which cause minimal side effects.”
Warm weather
ending here
The spell of unseasonably warm weather has come to an
end in Georgia.
A strong cold front moved across the state yesterday. It
reached the Griffin area late in the day. It moved off the
coast early this morning.
Rain and some thundershowers accompanied the front
with more than two inches of rain falling across northern
Georgia and around a third of an inch along the coast.
Skies gradually cleared over the state last night and this
morning.
Gradually falling temperatures range from around 40
degrees in North Georgia this morning to the 50s in the
southeast.
The outlook for the next couple of days calls for
generally fair skies but with quite cold weather.
There is a freeze warning for Georgia, including the
Griffin area, for tonight. Winds will continue rather strong
from the northwest adding to the first cold snap of the fall
season.
On the weather map a large high pressure ridge that
originated in Canada will dominate the Southeastern
states for several days at least. The center of the high is
expected to reach the Tennessee valley region Friday
night and Georgia on Saturday.
Cattlemen are here
for board, banquet
Georgia Cattlemen’s Associa
tion officers and directors
opened a meeting this afternoon
at the library of the Georgia
Experiment Station on an op
timistic note. They believe
better days are ahead for the
cattle business.
The meeting got under way at
1:30 with Dr. 0. E. Sell of
Milner, as president, presiding.
Some 400 people are expected
to attend the annual Mid-
Georgia Cattlemen’s Associa
tion banquet at the Moose Club
tonight.
budget slashing in the special session.
Sen. Horace Tate, D-Atlanta, an associate director of the
GAE, said Busbee is punishing the teachers for going to
court and trying to enforce the raises previously granted
to them.
He said the teachers are entitled to pay raises next year
without any proof of improved classroom performance.
“It is my feeling that the vast majority of the people in
Georgia feel that educators have traditionally been
underpaid for the excellent services that they have
already rendered,” said Tate. “It was my understanding
that educators, having had approved for them a salary
increase by the 1975 legislature, and later having this
approved appropriation taken away by a special session,
would receive priority consideration for a cost-of-living
salary increase during the 1976 legislative session.”
Tate added that “this cost-of-living increase was not to
be attached to any condition that the governor or anyone
else might initiate or create.”
Vol. 103 No. 270
Robert Ed Legge of Decatur,
Magic Chef Range Co.,
representative, will be the
banquet speaker.
The Gordon Junior College
Choral Group will present an
entertainment program,
according to Lavon Cato of
Griffin, president of the Mid-
Georgia group.
Following adjournment
tomorrow, the board will be
guests of Willard Baxter, presi
dent of the Golden Banner
Cattlemen’s Association and
director of the Georgia Baptist
Children’s Home.