MEDICAL BENEFITS

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 August 1940, Page 3

MEDICAL BENEFITS

GOVT.-B.M.A. CONFERENCE [PER press association.] WELLINGTON, August 20. Although he was not prepared to give the exact date, the Minister for Health (Mr. Armstrong) said to-night that a conference with the British Medical Association to discuss plans for the introduction of the general practitioner scheme under Part 3 of the Social Security Act would be held early next month. Full plans for submission to the British Medical Association have been prepared; but it is extremely unlikely that early acceptance of any of the plans will be made.

Mr. Armstrong said that the full personnel of the Government representation at the conference had not been arranged. As Minister for Health he would attend, and he would be supported by the chiefs of the Health Department. “Is it a fact that only six doctors in New Zealand have contracted out of the maternity benefit plan, these being doctors who have specialist practices, and who are not desirous of undertaking maternity cases?” was a question put to the Minister. He replied that only a few doctors —he did not know the exact number—had contracted out of the scheme. They were practitioners who were not desirous of engaging in maternity practice.

The state of the Social Security Fund is revealed’in the latest figures published in the Gazette of August 7. The receipts and expenditure for the three months ended in June were higher thap for the same quarterly period last year. The receipts balanced at £3,865,773, as compared with £3,324,501, while the expenditure was £1,975,975, as agaipst £l,183,994 for the same period last year. The principal receipts for the quarter, with comparative figures in parenthesis, were: Social Security charge, £2,845,355 ( £2,275,952); registration levy, £89,100 (£283,745); transfer from Consolidated Fund, £400,000 £750,000). Expenditure under the heading of annual appropriation was £434,507, £85,683 being for administration expenses and emergency benefits, and £348,684 for medical and hospital benefits. The amount spent last year was' £11,673. The balance in the fund after three months was £1,507,797, compared with £523,901 last year. The sum of £400,000 has been invested.