HEALTH INSURANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1934, Page 4

HEALTH INSURANCE.

Whenever demands are made upon local authorities for hospital rates there is usually a fair amount of discussion in regard to the cost of hospital and health services. This week the Egmont County Council discussed those problems, one councillor being of opinion that hospitals should be free for ail, the necessary funds being taken from the consolidated revenue of the Dominion. As this would mean increased general taxation the relief to the ratepayer might be more than offset by higher taxation, while central finance would be certain to carry with it central control. To those who think administration should be decentralised rather than become more bureaucratic the suggestion for hospital finance and control is not likely to appeal, for jf all public services hospitals are likely to benefit as much as any from the personal touch for which local control affords the better opportunity. Last week the representatives of hospital boards and the British Medical Association discussed a national health insurance system, and were such developed it might mean considerable relief for hospital finance. Such a system should cover medical advice, and as prevention rather than cure of disease is the aim of the medical profession periodic examination and advice would be likely to reduce considerably the number of hospital patients and to make shorter the stay of those for whom hospital treatment was necessary. Their earlier discharge from the public institutions would be facilitated by the knowledge that they would be under medical supervision in their own homes, and this might enable a considerable reorganisation of hospital policy. It is true that the individual would still be called upon to pay for community service. The experience of friendly societies and other organisations has proved, however, that by co-operation the cost of health services to the individual and to the community can be reduced considerably. It Is at a time like the present, when expenditure on any account must be watched so closely, that a plan of national health insurance might well be

inaugurated. It is to be hoped therefore that hospital authorities and the medical profession will succeed in stimulating interest in this important social service.