SOCIAL SECURITY AMENDMENT

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 297, 12 September 1941, Page 8

SOCIAL SECURITY AMENDMENT

No Important Changes In Principle COMMITTEE’S REPORT

No important changes of principle are embodied in amendments made by the Public Health Committee to the Social Security Amendment Bill, which is designed to provide a free general medical practitioner service. The committee reported back to the House yesterday with a recommendation that the Bill should be allowed to proceed with amendments, of which there are several.

The amended Bill provides that where a doctor is informed that a prospective patient is not entitled to medical attention under any special arrangement, and therefore he gives the patient service in good faith, the patient, if his statement is untrue, is responsible to repay to the Social Security Fund any amount paid from the fund to the doctor.

Another amendment stipulates that where a, doctor in an emergency supplies any medicines or appliances not covered by the Pharmaceutical Supplies Regulations, 1941, and thus cannot recover from tb-e fund, he may recover the reasonable cost from the patient. The method of claiming payments from the fund has been slightly varied, and there has been deleted the requirement that a certificate must be obtained from the patient that he has received he doctor’s services. At the same time the clause stipulates that claims must be accompanied by such certificates as may 'be prescribed. Additional Provision. An additional provision is that if any question arises whether any service is included as .general medical service, or as to what amount shall be paid from the fund, it is to be decided by the Minister after consulting the committee set up under the original Act. Clause 8 of the Bill, empowering the making of regulations to prescribe higher fees in 1 certain cases, and clause 9, stipulating that payments from the fund must be accepted in full satisfaction, have been deleted and redrafted. A restriction is still placed on the right to charge fees in excess of amounts payable from the fund. Doctors are forbidden, in general, to demand or accept any fees for general practitioner services if they have received, or are entitled to receive, a payment from the fund. If, however, the patient refuses to acknowledge the service given, the doctor may recover from the patient the amount which he would have been paid from the fund.

Power is taken to make regulations to authorize any general practitioner to receive higher fees than those provided in the Bill, to prevent abuses and to prescribe punishments for offences against the regulations.