HEALTH SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 60, 8 September 1938, Page 7

HEALTH SERVICE

OPPOSITION'S ATTITUDE

\Vhen it came to the section dealing with hospital and medical benefits, Mr. Kyle said that he had heard that the Government proposed to allow a good many German Jews to take part in the scheme in the event of the Government not being able to come to some arrangement with the British Medical Association.

Mr. Hamilton questioned the necessity of taxing the community to provide a free health service for those who could well afford to pay their way and would prefer to do so. He thought that probably two-thirds of the community were in that category. The Opposition seriously questioned the wisdom of making a partial health service available to everyone in New Zealand, but recognised that there was a call for a good health service for those who could not afford it. It was not social security to give a free health service to a man on £1000 a year. The Minister: He is paying £50 a year for itMr. Hamilton: He will be paying a lot more than that in indirect taxation. He will want to be free to make his own provision. There is a personal connection between a patient and a doctor that is valuable. The Minister of Health (the Hon. P. Fraser) said that he was interested in Mr. Hamilton's point of view, but it was difficult' to understand it. Under the Bill everyone would have the right to select,,, his or her own doctor, and the doctor would have the right to reject patients he did not wish to treat. The only restriction he could conceive, said Mr. Fraser, was that the number of people who Went to a popular doctor might be more than he could deal with. IMAGINARY DIFFICULTIES. "I can assure hon. members that these difficulties are imaginary and that the medical profession does not anticipate any difficulty in regard to j this part of the scheme," said Mr. Fraser. Furthermore, if the difficulties were there at all, they would still apply to a limited scheme. He understood that Mr. Hamilton was prepared Ito support a scheme based on income.

limits. What incomes would he suggest? Mr. Hamilton: The whole Bill is practically limited to a means testMr. Fraser: Supposing you fix £350 or £400 as the limit of income of those to benefit, what about those on £351 or £401 paying the same amount and getting no benefit? Are the Opposition prepared to say they will limit _ the scheme to certain incomes? That is a straight-out issue.

From the medical point of view he was not going to say that agreement had been reached on every detail, because there had not been time, Mr. Fraser added. That would be discussed later on. It was, however, correct to say that, apart from the difference of opinion between the Government and the medical profession on the scope of the scheme on the question of incomes, there was no great difficulty to anticipate. The Bill would go through, and he supposed that negotiations would have to be opened again with the profession.