The battle of fee-for-service medicine vs. salaried group practice or nationalized health insurance has been a protracted one in the United States throughout the twentieth century. The Literary Digest published examples of some of the early salvos in 1916. When Dr. Richard Cabot argued in The American Magazine that the fees of some medical men were excessive and advocated putting them on salaries, paid either by the state or by large corporations and standardizing the charges, he roused the ire of many of his medical brethren. In a countercharge, The Southern Medical Journal (Atlanta) accused him of "so overstat[ing] his case that what little truth might lie at the bottom is hidden by the murky smoke of his insinuations." Dr. Cabot's suggestion, that the practice of medicine in "groups" as seen in modern hospital service and in the common affiliation of expert practitioners should...