under Currents IN THE DRIFT OF LIFE

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17408, 22 May 1928, Page 6

under Currents IN THE DRIFT OF LIFE

tßy * Seeder. ‘

PAYING FOR THE HOSPITALS. Protests against the new hospital levies have been raised at almost every local body meeting during the past few weeks. Councillors complain that the councils have to pay the piper whilst the hospital boards call the tune. As the boards are elected by the ratepayers, there is not much ground for this complaint. More convincing is the argument that the burden should not be on the rates in any case, but. on funds derived from the people as a whole. Two local bodies have suggested that the Government should provide the financial needs. But it has yet to be shown that a central department is more economical than a local body. In general, I think, the reverse is true. A general insurance scheme for hospital treatment and for health preservation would place the cost where it belongs, and there is no reason why a proper measure of local control should not be preserved under such % plan. * * • • INSURANCE FOR ALL RISKS. The “Seeker” looks forward to the time when insurance against all risks will he automatically provided out of \ the product of one’s toil —insurance against sickness, unemployment, poverty due to old age, against the risk of getting married and having children to support, the risk of leaving them inadequately supported after the breadwinner’s death. At present we have an absurd muddle. For accidents in employment there is virtually compulsory insurance. .In the various other misfortunes the State or the ratepayers will give some meagre charitable help—subsidies to hospitals, relief work for the unemployed, pensions to the aged poor, a miserable pittance of a family allowance, and widow's’ pensions. These pauperising charities are wrong. On tbe other hand individuals who are dominated by the fear of poverty for themselves or their dependents grasp at wealth by efery possible means to guard against the risks. The wolfish struggle seems to me an even greater evil than charity. It makes a few strong wolves —but at what a cost! Why do we‘pauperise folk instead of having general insurance schemes, paid for as part of a worker's earnings? The “Seeker” can give only his own answer. It is this: There is so much injustice in our social system that some allowance has to be made. It is easier to hand outjeharity than to rearrange things on a just basis. But in the long run we shall have to do the more reasonable thing. * * * * “COMMUNITY" HOSPITALS. “Ex-Matron” in her letter to this paper has done a service by pointing out that “community hospitals,” or public hospitals with private departments, could he run without a compulsory classification. Certainly, classification is in the piinds of some who are concerned with hospitals, and in the official report of the Health Department of last year the New Zealand Medical Association is reported lo have asked (among other things relating to the “community" plan) that “patients should be divided into three classes—(a) those unable to pay anything, (b) those able to pay for maintenance, and (c) those able to pay for medical attention as well as maintenance.”

It may be that we who dislike class distinctions could persuade the powerful bodies favouring the “community” system to allow the private and public sections to be quith separate, except tliit both would have the use of a central surgical department. The use that private doctors and hospitals make of the laboratories of the big public hospitals gives a lead in this direction. And I repeat that we poor are not so spiteful as to wish to deprive the rich of either comfort op expert service. • * * * / POPULARITY OF HOSPITALS, f To revert to the question of cost: Do the local bodies that are protesting against the levies for public hospitals realise how popular these places have become and how much more they arc used now than in the. past? This popularity probably accounts largely for the rapid rise in‘expenditure. The great increase in motor accidents is another cause. Some of the hospital authorities are investigating what it costs to treat the victims of these accidents. The cost is certainly very high, and there is talk of boards joining in the appeal for compulsory insurance for motorists and their prospective (a bright prospect!) victims. But why not extend the insurance scheme further, remove the taint of pauperism from our hospitals and encourage health cultivation rather than the tinkering with disease. * * * * MR COATES GETS A LESSON. The railway advertisements urgo everybody to travel by rail for safety’s sake. Mr Coates, Minister of Railways, neglected to take his own officers’ advice and was taught a lesson. Travelling up north by motor, he met a flood drove him back; another flood- had' manoeuvred to cut off his retreat. But our splendid railway system came to the rescue and carried the erring Minister and his party safe to their destination. One wonders whether the enterprising commercial branch of the railways arranged that flood by way of an advertisement for lhe safety and reliability of the railways. * * * * AIR LLOYD GEORGE’S PAINFUL TRUTH. To the hundreds of cures for toothache another has now to he added. A Yorkshire evening paper, commenting on a had attack of toothache from which Mr Lloyd George had been suffering at the beginning of lhe holidays, reported that-he was now very much better, adding: “The previous day Mr Lloyd George had the painful truth extracted.” * * * * CHICAGO MAN’S MISTAKE. A rich Chicago merchant died, and was being shown over the next world by an official guide. “Dear me,” exclaimed the merchant, “I had no idea heaven was so like Chicago.” “This,” said the oilicial grimly, “is not heaves.’’