THE PROCESS OF SOCIALISATION

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 10

THE PROCESS OF SOCIALISATION

A point well.worth noting was made by Col. Hargest, member for Awarua, in discussing the Government’s health insurance scheme. It had reference to the so-called “free” medical service. This service, of course, is not free in any sense of the term. It will be paid for.by the people through special taxation, the Government merely passing on the money to the doctors. That was the point Col. Hargest brought out. The purpose of the method adopted by the Government is to extend its socialistic activities.

A moment’s examination will make this clear. To-day, the patient pays direct to the doctor who attends him or his family. The doctor has a personal relationship with the patient as the patient’s personal medical attendant. Under the proposed scheme, the Government steps in between patient and doctor, and collects the fees by taxation, passing on a share of them to the doctor. The medical man is no longer the servant of the patient, but the servant of the Government; working to a machine-made routine and not as his own best judgment of the needs of each individual patient may suggest. The Government is thus given a fresh field of patronage; a new group of State servants looking to the Government for pay and privileges is created. Another class of private business involving individual initative and enterprise is eliminated. Our Socialist Government will have made another step toward its goal of the complete socialisation of New Zealand. This is the position in a nutshell. It is an aspect of the scheme which stands out with increasing clearness. This, no doubt, is why the Government rejected the more practical proposals of the medical profession in which they promised the fullest possible co-operation. The doctors’ plan offered greater advantages to those unable, to pay for service, but it did not go far enough in the direction, desired by the Government. It avoided the socialisation of the medical profession, and by so doing checked one of the main purposes of .the Government’s scheme. So the doctors, it is hinted, must be disciplined. Is this, too, in the interests of the patients; or is it merely another indication by the Prime Minister that nothing will be permitted to stand in the way of the Government going the full journey? Roadroller methods to crush opposition.