DOCTORS AND THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT.

Evening Star, Issue 23237, 10 April 1939, Page 3

DOCTORS AND THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT.

VO THE EDITOR. ' Sir, —In your issue of Thursday an announcement is 1 made that the council "Of the B.M.A. have rejected the proposals ot the Government in coh- ! noction with; the Social Security Act. This brings us to another stage in the Opposition to the aims and aspirations of the Labour Government in New Zealand. -In this respect we may take it. that the Government was elected in i'a constitutional manner by a big majority of the electors of this country on its promises of social reform, and those electors are looking to the Government to fulfil its pledges in this respect. A : sliort time ago we had trouble with ’the. waterside workers regarding _ the holding up of industry, arid the'Government: said iin . 119 uncertain terfps that it would not stand for this.. ‘‘ Industry must go on.” The case for the doctors, however, is in a different category. They pre . carrying on, ; but in their own way. Is the B.M.A. stronger than the Government? ‘‘ Surely not,” and the next move is awaited with keen interest.. ■ _ • In the meantime the state of .the ordinary working man is pretty confusing. All persons over the age of 16 arc now;,, paying theit.full quota to the security fund, which entitles them to free - medical treatment. When this measure of ’ the Act is brought into operation they will not be called on to make extra payments; all these started on,April.L If a person engages a medical man now I do not think it will be accepted as a valid excuse that he is already paying the Government. He will be expected to meet His■ liability to the medical adviser. A man getting £4 a week, with 4s a week taken oil as wage tax and 5s a quarter levy is going to be bard hit to pay for medical treatment which'he should not be called upon to meet. . . , The attitude of the doctors in New Zealand is : governed to a certain extent by the B.M.A. in England, a body of men the majority of whom do not know much about social conditions here. It is one- of the last' desperate 'efforts to stem the tide of social reform long overdue. In. the unsettled 1 state 01 Europe at the present time there must be .hundreds .of: duly.,qualified medical men who would be. Happy to practise‘in New Zealand under social service conditions, and not bound by the B.M.A. Students at the present time who are qualifying for! tlusr medical degree should get this on the condition of social service conditions. By adopting these methods New Zealand' will loosen the grip of the 8.M.A., which apparently is not acting here in the interests of the people as a whole. We are now waiting the nest move, of the Government. —1 am, etc., , Social Security. April 8.