The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do. MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1938. HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 143, 20 June 1938, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do. MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1938. HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN.

The Prime Minister, in his address at 1 Masterton, is reported to have said that the “aim” of the Government’s health insurance plan is “to banish another fruitful cause of distress and suffering—the heavy load of medical and hospital expenses, which may at anytime fall without warning on any family in the country.” Whatever may be the Government's aim, it is wrong to raise popular , hopes that the effects of the scheme will be ■ those described by Mr. Savage. It is indeed essential that the public should understand completely what the health insurance plan involves, and what it does not involve. It proposes a free, universal general practitioner service, free hospital, sanatorium or mental . hospital care and treatment, free medicines, and free maternity treatment. These are the ■ proposals for immediate adoption. ' There are ’ other proposals, to be brought into effect “when 1 the organisation and finances are available,” that is to say, in the indefinite future. Only ' by including these supplementaries can it be said that the “aim” of the scheme is to “banish” the expense, which, as Mi'. Savage says, may fall upon any family at any time. Now what was the considered judgment of the B.M.A. on the scheme? “The Prime Minister’s proposals,” said the president of the 8.M.A., “provide little for the people which is n<?t available to them at the present time, and do nothing to remove real impediments to efficient treatment...” “The failure to include specialists,. consultants and laboratory and radiological services robs the scheme of what virtue it might have had. Bor these essential parts of medical service the poorer people will have to turn either to private sources or to the public hospitals.” Since then it has been pointed out by another prominent doctor that under a State “general practitioner service” the people will not receive, and cannot expect to be given, the same treatment that they now receive from their doctors. More of them will be sent on to specialists or to the hospitals. If they go to specialists they must, as now, bear their own costs, or rely on the specialists’ charity. If they choose the other alternative—as the majority must—it appears probable that the present hospital accommodation', large as it is, will be hopelessly inadequate,' and it is certain that the majority of public hospitals have not the kinds of staffs necessary to render all the services that will be demanded of them. The health insurance plan is a gift horse whose mouth should be examined very carefully.

A LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE.

' Sir James Carroll, to whose memory a new meeting-house and public hall were opened on Saturday, won a high place in the regard of both pakeha and Maori, and the perpetuation of his memory at his birthplace is a fitting tribute to his great public services. In him the two races were fused, and he had many of the virtues of both. The great oratorical powers of the Maori were very fully developed in him, and in either the Maori or the English language he spoke with a sonority and a fire which made his every speech a delight. As Mr. Langstone said on Saturday, Sir James sanctified the word “Taihoa,” for if he went slow he did it in a good cause by delaying the alienation of native lands and thus saving many of the people from dispossession and pauperism when the money they received from sales had been spent. “Timi Kara,” as he was universally and affectionately known to the Maori, fought a good fight for the interests of the race he represented as Native Minister for so long, and did much at a time when every possible effort was being made to alienate native lands to induce his people to I retain and farm them, and to raise their standard-of living. His influence continues; his example was a great stimulus to Sir Apirana T. Ngata, another great Native Minister, while thousands of Maoris revere his name as that of a leader who urged them on to a higher way of life.

“EFFICIENCY” AND THE PUBLIC.

The case of Mr. N. P. Ross, who wished to t establish a pharmacy at Mission Bay, provides ; a good example of the working of the Industrial Efficiency Act. He was refused permission to set himself up in business at the place of his choice, and his appeal was heard, and rejected, by Sir Francis Frazer. There need be no doubt that this final decision was made on the merits of the case—within the framework of the Act. Thb real point—and it is, one which the public should earnestly consider in all its implications—is the inevitable rigidity of the Act. It seems from the wording of the official statement that the ground of the refusal to license a new pharmacy at Mission Bay was that it would' tend to' “overlapping likely to create an uneconomic situation”; in other words, that the Pharmacy Plan Industrial Committee (whose personnel includes a majority of pharmacists) decided that there would not be enough business for th? existing pharmacy at St. Helier’s and the new one at Mission Bay. The committee may or may not be right; no one can say. One man plight succeed in the new business (and without injuring the old) where another might fail. But while he was succeeding, or failing, the public convenience would be served. As a considerable distance separates St. Helier’s from Mission Bay, public convenience will most certainly not be served by the committee’s decision. It is a decision which strengthens the doubts inspired In .he Act itself.