"BURNING HOT"

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4816, 28 July 1939, Page 6

"BURNING HOT"

HOSPITAL RATING. BURDEN ON COUNTIES. EFFECT OF SECURITY ACT. Hospital rating was the "burninghot" question of the day amongst all county councils, declared Mr. C. J. Talbot, of Fairlie, in his presidential address at the opening session of the biennial conference of the New Zealand Counties' Association on Wednesday. This, he said, was due to the steep-ascent of the financial requirements of hospital boards.

Mr. Talbot said that from inquiries made from various hospital boards, the main causes of the increase in hospital expenditure were:—(l) People were becoming more "hospitalminded,' as the bias against entering a public hospital was fast disappearing. Consequently extra hospital accommodation was required. (2) Increase in staffs, with the resultant increase in wages and salaries. (3) Increase in cost of provisions and drugs. One hospital considered that provisions showed an increase of 50 per cent, during the past five years. Another considered that the cost of drugs had risen 20 per cent, during the past year. (4) Demand for better surgical" and medical equipment. In a few years, most expensive plants became obsolete. (5) Renovations of some of the hospitals. During the depression of nine or ten years ago, much maintenance work had been left in abeyance.

Taxation Limit Reached

"The increase in hospital expenditure has had repercussions on the individual ratepayer, who at the moment has reached the limit of his taxable capacity/' said Mr. Talbot. "To show the marked increase in individual levy, I quote the case of a Taranaki farmer who paid £3 6s lid as hospital rates in 1938, and £5 8s 3d in 1939, an increase of £1 lis 4d or 40 per cent., in one year. To the 80,000 farmers dotted all over the Dominion, the aggregate increase in hospital rates must have amounted to a considerable sum.

"During last year the executive formulated the following policy to meet the situation: —(1) That the whole basis of hospital rating be reviewed as a result of the Social Security legislation; (2) That until the basis has been reviewed the Government be asked to increase its hospital subsidy to 2-1. If this increased subsidy had been in vogue in 1937, there would have been a decrease in county levies of about £185,000. About the middle of last March a combined deputation from the Municipal Association ond this organisation waited on the Minister of Health and placed the above policy before him. It was also pointed out to the Minister that the alarmingincrease in hospital levies had a serious repercussion on road and bridge finance.

Place of Hospital Boards

"The Minister, in reply, stated that he could hold out little hope of the Government increasing the subsidy to £2 to £l. With regard to a suggestion that perhaps the whole of hospital finance could be obtained by increasing the Social Security tax to Is 2d or Is 3d, the Minister replied that this meant the abolition of hospital boards—a result that both he and his Government did not wish to see, as they believed local government to be the bulwark of democracy.

"A perusal of the agenda papers shows that our county councils are far from being unanimous in suggesting methods to cope with this ever-growing burden, and I hope delegates will not weaken as regards our policy by having several red herrings dragged across their paths. County councils are unanimous in stating that too much money is being spent on our hospitals and not enough on roads. They also feel that there is little justification to-day for any increase in taxation on the land to meet the cost of the rapidly-in-creasing social services, especially since the prices paid for primary products are unstable and comparatively low."

Spreading Security Benefits. The president said that early last year the association's hospital committee prepared evidence for submission to the Parliamentary Committee hearing evidence on that novel piece of legislation, the Social Security Act. Reviewing that evidence in the light of present-day experience, he was fully convinced, from an unbiassed point of view, that if the complete change-over to the Social Security system had been spread over four or five years, as advised by the organisation, the Government would have found fewer and less stiff

financial hurdles to jump, and that spread would have made the changeover more palatable to the general public. "It must not be forgotten," said Mr. Talbot, "that the Social Security legislation was designed not as a means to give relief in taxation to anybody, but as a means of increas-

ing taxation in order to give additional benefits to those able to participate. But, in my opinion, it would not be fair to make the land responsible for any increases in hospital taxation due to the operation of social security; the social security tax should meet any additional burden which the scheme creates."