HEALTH INSURANCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 167, 19 July 1935, Page 7

HEALTH INSURANCE

THE BRITISH SCHEME REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENT ■ GREAT HOUSING PROGRAMME I British Official Wireless. | Received Julv 18, 9.5 p.m. 'RUGBY, July 17. The Minister of Health, Sir Kingsley Wood, reviewing thc work of his department in the House of Commons, said the creation of a scheme of national health insurance had been one of the most remarkable developments in public health in the last quarter of a century. The scheme had disbursed benefits to the value of £480,000,000 ami had been copied by 12 other countries. Representatives of many countries came to study thc working of the scheme. The provisions of the widows’ and I old-age pensions and 600,000 widows’ expanding and now included 6,000,000 olda-ge pensions and 600,000 widows’ pensions, supplemented by 270,000 additional allowances in respect of children and 15,000 orphans’ pensions. No country in thc world made such provision for millions of people against some of the most serious disabilities of life. During the four years to March 31, 1935, approximately one million houses had been built, and for the first six months of 1935 new houses for slum replacement were sanctioned ac the rate of over 6000 a month in England and Wales. The unsolved problem of reducing maternal mortality was complex and would require patience, but special inquiries were proceeding which, he hoped, would aid understanding and attention. There had been a great awakening in the national conscience on health, particularly on housing affairs, and the nation itcslf was learning greater common sense in health matters, including diet, increased use of daylight, open air, leisure and recreation. Opposition speakers criticised the Government’s housing programme as inadequate and alleged that many new houses were jerry built. “COURAGEOUS SPEECH” LADY ASTOR CREATES STIR VIEWS FIERCELY DENOUNCED Received July 18, 10.20 p.m. LONDON, July 18. There was a scene when Lady Astor declared that malnutrition among children was not due to poverty but to not knowing the right kind of food. Labour tries of dissent. Lady Astor: “I am talking about what I know.” Mr Logan: “So are we.” Lady Astor: “You are talking about what you think you know.” She drew attention to maternal mortality, a proportion of which she alleged, was due to illegal operations which could be avoided by birth centre I. She said that if a woman married a working man on a low wage, after having three children naturally thc woman did not want another, and she died avoiding it. NEr Logan: “Hasn’t she the right not to want another?” Lady Astor; “1 am trying to give her a chance. I once did not believe in birth-control clinics. When I went and saw appalling things I •changed my mind.” She begged tho House to face the need of proper instruction for mothers. Mr Logan fiercely denounced the speech. He said this knowledge would be one of the curses of the age, and only fit for the gutter. It was not the poor but the wealthy who feared children. Lady Astor: “T had six!” Mr Logan, in reply to an interruption later, said: “I have listened to you until I am fed up.” Mr McKeag (congratulated Lady Astor on her courageous speech. Air Shakespeare, in reply, said the Ministry of Health refused to be drawn into the controversy. The policy of the Ministry was that it was wrong for a clinic to give birth control advice except where health was endangered.