If you have a library card it gives you access to the New York Times archives. In doing some research for a personal project, I found a story from Oct. 14, 1931 that included this paragraph:
Dr. William H. Walsh, hospital consultant from Chicago, said that it has become the practice to overcharge the pay patients in order to meet the cost of the charity cases. “Nevertheless,” he said, “neither the average individual nor the average family can afford to pay the prices now charged for adequate medical and hospital care, and on the other hand, neither the average physician nor the average nurse appears to earn an income from his or her professional services above that earned by others in related professions requiring the same scholastic prepration.” He recommended that patients should pay only the fair cost and that the funds to carry the cost of part-time and charity patients should be made up from endowments or by the local government.
