Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 20

PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1972 20 JT i I i a I Sylvia Porter To a Checkless Society 'J-' i i 4 'm 7 7 Nader to Unveil Congress Study WASHINGTON (U I) -Ralph Nader, who has investigated everything from dirty meat to defective cars, this week unveils the first results of the biggest raid of his careera report on the U. S. Congress. A team of 1,000 "Nader raiders" has put together a massive report on Congress ranging from where individual members get their political contributions to how much time they spend on the job. "Nader is crazy to do this every congressman he criticizes becomes an enemy," one lawmaker claimed.

Others like Sen. Charles Percy 111.) and Thomas Eagleton Mo.) were enthusiastic about the probe. KNOWN OFFICIALLY as "The Ralph Nader Congress Project-Citizens Look at Congress," the investigation is costing Nader $200,000. He It's October, a new month, the bills are starting to roll in, and within the next 10 days I'll write checks on the household account to the grocery store, meat market, cleaner, laundry, drug store, telephone company, florist, at least two or three department stores, etc. Simultaneously, my husband will write checks on a separate account to the landlord, telephone company, garage, liquor store, newspaper delivery agency, at least two or three restaurants, perhaps some department stores" and an insurance company, too.

In time, we spend a couple of hours each month doing this. In money, stamps alone average $2 a month often more, rarely less and even the en- n'-j cost money. Sick Also, it's a bore Clasns Healt hyf but Sales Are and a of you chore as millions surely will agree. ARE THERE ALTERNA-TTVFS? Yes- And increasing of them are emerging. If you know how to use your credit or bank charge card with prudence, you can quickly cut this time-consuming, check-consuming, stamp-consuming burden.

Simply use the card wherever you can: Gas station, store, restaurant, etc. Instead of receiving individual bills from each of these businesses, you receive one monthly charge card bill that raised the money through the lecture circuit and article writing. Tomorrow he will release a 225-page paperback book, "Who Runs Congress?" Within two weeks, the book will be followed by "profiles" on every member of the House and Senate. A series of other studies will be issued between then and January. Nader says all but about 35 members were interviewed personally.

Each was allowed to check the final profile, but only "for factual errors." Maine lobsters and fish taken from the North Atlantic coastal waters have not been affected by the micro-organisms. They are safe to eat. John Corialos, a bartender at the M-C Restaurant, 1504 Callowhill said he used to sell 1,000 clams a week. "We're lucky if we sell 100 a week now, that's how much the clam business is off," he said. "OUR CLAM SALES are off," echoed Lee Bekoff, manager of Rosov's, a wholesale seafood house at 918 Canal st.

"Our clams and mussels are purchased locally and our suppliers are not in the affected waters." Dom Lepore, the chef at the South Phila- delphia Grille and Restaurant, 12th and Mercy said a few customers "were skeptical" about their "If people ask if they're safe we show them purchase tags proving they are from local waters," he explained. By FRANK DOUGHERTY The effects of the "Red Tide infestation of poisonous algae that has badly affected shell fishing in sections of New England are being felt here. Looking across empty tables at the Blue Point Crab House in Frankford, Chet Lu-baczewski said business was off "more than 60." "Although the waters here remain untainted, people aren't buying clams and mussels because of the public scare," he remarked. CLAMS AND MUSSELS sold locally usually are harvested from Atlantic coastal waters off New Jersey and Delaware, and from the Chesapeake Bay. "Shell fishing in this area has not been affected," said Food and Drug Administration spokesman James Nakada.

All shellfish harvested south of Massachusetts are acceptable, added an FDA spokesman in Boston. The FDA announced the New England shellfish recall on Sept. 4 after receiving reports of the algae poisoning. IFYOU VVAffT REALLY LOW'TAR' AND REALLY FULL FLAVOR, THEN LUCKY TEN IS REALLY FOR YOU. ADs Need Education, Denenberg Says By RICH AREGOOD Pennsylvania's doctors can expect more seminars conducted by Prof.

Herbert S. Denenberg. The state insurance commissioner believes there is great educational value in hearings you can pay witn one cnecK and one stamp and at NO INTEREST provided you settle the account within the billing period. This quick settlement is the must. Check and see whether your own bank or savings institution or others in your neighborhood will automatically" pay your regular bills out of your checking or savings account.

An estimated 2,500 full service banks alone offer this paying service for such regular bills as quarterly insurance premiums often at no charge. Consider buying and using the Supercheck an oversized check which you can use to pay as many as 45 regular monthly bills. Some 500 banks from coast to coast offer this service, usually for 50 cents a supercheck which amounts a substantial saving considering the number of individual checks and stamps you'd use otherwise. TDn that one check, you write the figures you want the bank to pay each of several merchants, up to 45, attach the bill stubs, send the whole thing to the bark to handle. Or look for an institution offering special checks (called by-the trick name Date 'n Sign checks) for variable monthly bills already stamped to the creditor.

NOW THE NEWEST, most dramatic bill-paying crutch another major step toward an eventual checkless society is the electronics funds transfer. City National Bank in Ohio ran i a test of this in Upper Arlington, and several other banks including Hempstead Bank on Long Island are also field testing similar projects. The way it works is this: You go into a department store, a pharmacy or similar place, make a purchase and have the store collect through your bank. You have a special customer 1 card (electronic funds transfer) that you give to the store clerk. The clerk in turn writes up a sales ticket and puts the card in an electronic card reader.

Computers linking the store to the bank arrange to transfer the funds from your (the customer) account to the store (the seller) account. like last week's five days testimony into Blue Shield's request for an 18 rate increase. And Denenberg is convinced that those who need the education most are the doctors them- i selves. "The hearings were held for the doctors. It's the doctors who have to be educated," he said.

"Doctors in the medical establishment are mm t-' mmm 1 ff- iri -m-Tiil reality. You can tell by the emotional tone of their arguments indicating they're not capable of dialogue. "THE MEDICAL establishment is bankrupt of ideas. There was testimony urging us to consider the 19,000 doctors and their welfare. What about the 20,000 people who die every year from unnecessary surgery or the 2 to 4 million who undergo unnecessary sur-gery.

"Blue Shield is now an apparatus of, "by and for the doctors. It's a device to make doctors rich. The health delivery system generally is designed to cover up." He cited as examples the facts that doctors' work and activities are subject to review by other doctors and that the Blue Shield board is dominated by doctors. "THESE HEARINGS could have run an- other week, and they were the most compre- hensive any state insurance department has ever held. Consumer testimony was remarkable for its quality.

That illustrates again that our basic approach is sound. The consumer is more responsible, sensitive and well-educated about health care than the doctors are. "Medical care is the biggest industry in the country. Everybody in it knows that. You can tell from the testimony.

Everybody wants money psychologists, even chiropractors. "We could negotiate for 1,000 years and never get anywhere, but when we put the heat on, things are changed." To emphasize Jus. Denenberg an-. nounced yesterday that there will be no rate increase for Blue Shield without reforms (including insurance department's, 5,45 guidelines drawn up before the hearings). Denenberg just not dealing in Ho Rote Hikes Without Reforms, Blue Shield Told Herb Denenberg's Traveling Med- does three basic things.

insurance agent, sold the firm a pen- Responds to, and shows pro- sion plan from which he in, the guidelines proposed by r.fit.rf ONLY i lane Show has left town, but it left behind a definite message for Blue Shield: There will be no rate increase until Blue Shield submits to the reforms demanded by Insurance Com io mgtar: the Insurance Department. "Denenberg has offered a list of 45 proposals, aimed at greater consumer responsiveness and other reforms. "Resolves its conflict-of-interest "Makes available Medicare records." Blue Shield has denied Denenberg's department access to treatment records filed with the Social Security Administration. The depart- missioner Denenberg. DENENBERG'S postponement of a problems." Denenberg charged that Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health.

decision on the request for an 18 doctors in the Blue Shield voting ment claims it needs them to check increase in premium revenue after' membership and board of directors on the, quality of medical care pro- week of sometimes frenetic hear- have received fees from the program; vided ings will continue until the agency- and that a member of the board-, 'Rich Aregood 10 mg. 07 mg nicoiine. av. per cigaiem. FTC R'noM 72.