Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1910 — Nursing the Policy Holder [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Nursing the Policy Holder

T SEEMED as if every sort of inducement had been offered Jgrl T to a person to buy life insurance until the other day, when a I X blg New York company started to try out a new plan for the SaU— purpose of cutting down mortality figures and solving the problem of handling its surplus. This experiment promises SSSSs len< * new vitality to the insurance business of the world and the unique departure will be watched with interest by insurers and Insured. The company in question has sent a blank form to each of its policy holders in New York. Should a policy holder become ill he is to mail the form and the moment it is received a trained nurse will be assigned to him. While the case is progressing the insured is given daily attention without cost beyond his regular premiums, with the chances distinctly in favor of his recovery and a like gain in the mortuary books of the corporation. It is contended that the plan will be effective in another way, as it will help deserving nurses in their work, at the same time that help is extended to the sufferers who are policy holders in the company. In addition to this is the advertising which will come from such an undertaking and the additional talking point it will give the company’s agents. It is well known that life insurance companies are at war with consumption and every other recognized plague of civilization, and, they argue, if the spread of any known disease 1b checked it is not only a humanitarian but a good business proposition to get into the work of nursing the insured to health. That the experiment is likely to prove popular was evidenced a fortnight ago when a prominent New Yorker, becoming acquainted with the proposal, donated ninety acres of land in the hills not fifty miles from the metropolis, together with SIOO,OOO in cash, for the erection of a sanitarium. The donor is not a stockholder in the company, but was convinced that such an undertaking on the part of a big Insurance company would spread until it comprehended similar organizations throughout the country, thus providing hospitals for thousands of people who otherwise would be unable to avail themselves of proper treatment and care.