The Press TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1966. Growth Of The “Great Society ”

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 16

The Press TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1966. Growth Of The “Great Society ”

President Johnson's plans for increased benefits for old-age pensioners and other beneficiaries come under the Medicare section of his ambitious “ Great “Society” programme, which he described in his last State of The Union message to Congress. Last month, in another message to Congress, Mr Johnson again argued that a nation’s greatness was to be measured by its concern for the health and welfare of its people. The commitment thus implied, he indicated, must continue to grow and deepen, towards the goal of “full education for every citizen to the “ limit of his capacity to absorb it, and good health “ for every citizen to the limit of our country’s “ capacity to provide it ”. Much of the criticism of Mr Johnson's planning has centred on the expanding cost of social security, and the possibility of higher taxes. The Administration claims that all commitments abroad, including the war in Vietnam, can be met and the “ Great Society ” financed as well, since larger incomes ensure a larger tax yield. The President’s immediate concern appears to be for the elderly, although his current proposals, for which he is to seek Congressional approval, will include dental care for young children, on much the same lines, it would seem, as that provided in New Zealand through the school dental services. The suggested new legislation is apparently intended to complement amendments made to the Social Security Act last year. The range of benefits available under the Act was broadened to include health insurance for the elderly as well as the increased payments referred to by the President in his Texas statement. The insurance proposals, which will come into force in July, are novel in conception. Hospital insurance, for example, which will be financed by special, tax contributions from those desiring cover, will provide limited hospital, post-hospital, and nursing-home care for persons 65 years of age and over. Medical insurance will cover in part the fees of doctors and surgeons, and will require voluntary payments, by those who enrol, at the rate of three dollars a month, plus a similar contribution out of Federal funds The growing cost of the Medicare programme, which emerged, with a seeming inevitability, from the “ New Deal ” conception of 33 years ago, mav be gauged by the fact that in 1964 the Federal Government spent more than 19 billion dollars to benefit 18 million citizens of 65 or over. That figure will rise as the scope of the social security legislation is widened and merged with planning for the “ Great “ Society ”, which Mr Johnson presumably intends. If he reaches his goal, it has been said, nobody will be poor. The taxation aspect does not appear to dismay him or his advisers. A recently-completed official study estimates that by 1970 the Administration will be taxing, under laws existing now, at the rate of 165 billion dollars a year. In election year, 1968, Federal spending is expected to be at the rate of 150 billion dollars a year. Already it is being asked whether a party in pow'er, with spending resources on such a scale, could ever effectively be challenged. The Administration’s taxing and spending policies are seen as the mainsprings of the Johnson “ revolution", which is really no more revolutionary than the degree of planning long since taken for granted in the New Zealand economy. Some observers closest to the scene feel also that Mr Johnson’s dedication to the principles of the “ Great “ Society ” could result in the emergence of a national political machine so powerful as to be almost unchallengeable.