HEALTH PLAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23263, 4 February 1939, Page 14

HEALTH PLAN

MEDICAL SERVICE DATE INDEFINITE IMPOSSIBLE ON APRIL 1 MINISTER'S STATEMENT [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON. Friday "It will not bo possible for the necessary arrangements to be made to inaugurate the medical and allied benefits under the social security scheme on April 1," said tho Minister of Health, the Hon. P. Fraser, in an interview this evening. The Social Security Act passed at the last session of Parliament provides for the administration of these benefits by the Minister of Health. Mr. Fraser said that, in view of negotiations that had to take place with medical and other professions, as, well as with friendly societies, inauguration of the scheme on April 1 was a physical impossibility. However, there had been, and would be, no unnecessary delay, and the Government proposed to have the full scheme in operation on the earliest possible date. This fact in regard to the health section of the scheme was foreseen when tho Social Security Act was passed, added tho Minister, and provision was made for the medical benefits to be inaugurated later than April 1 if that were unavoidable. This did not, of course, affect the monetary benefits such as superannuation and all forms of pensions, which would come into force on April 1.