HOSPITAL RATING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 78, 15 July 1942, Page 5

HOSPITAL RATING

CONTROVERSIAL QUESTION

A question that was described by the Minister of Health, the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer, asi too controversial to be • tackled at the present time, was nevertheless a keen topic of discussion during the consideration of the estimates in the House last week The Hospital rating problem has been one which has exercised the minds of Wliakatane district local bodies recently and the Minister's explanation will 1 be therefore read with interest. This was the question of hospital rating, said the Minister, concerning which Opposition members from rural electorates pleaded for a change that Avoukl shift the bui-den of hospital rates oil' the shoulders of the ratepayers oil to the Social Security Fund. The discussion afforded an interesting demonstration of the sharp line of demarcation between the Government and the Opposition on matters of domestic policy, and it was also notable for the silence of those Opposition members who have joined the War Administration. After listening to the pleas of the Opposition speakers, the Minister, in his reply, told them that no good purpose would be served by their exaggerating the increase in the levy on local authorities made by hospital boards. Facts and Figures In 1939-40, the year prior to the Social Security hospital benefit coming into operation, the amount required to be found by the loca,l bodies for hospitals was £1.093,000. In the two subsequent years there was a substantial drop in the amount required from the local bodies, and the current year was the first year since the hospital benefit came into operation that the amount required showed an increase over the 1939-40 figures, although in some districts the increase had been greater than in others. The amount estimated to be required from the local authorities this year was £1,258,000 or £105,000 more than in 1939-40. It had to be remembered, said Mr Nordmeyer, that the money had to be found from some source, «'»nd many of those who were agitating for a reform in the method of hospital rating might find if the system was changed and taxation imposed by some other means they would have to find not less, but more than they Avere finding at present. One had yet to learn, he added, that in equity the burden should be placed on the Social Security Fund, If there Avas to. be an alteration in the incidence of hospital rating surely the burden should be borne by the Consolidated Fund. A suggestion that the present rating system should be scrapped in favour of raising money by means of an art union or some other forms of gambling could not possibly receive the support of the House. The Minister said it Avas admitted that there Avas a case for reform, but such a drastic, change, Avhich was likely to be one of the most controversial ■in the history of the country, should not take place at the present time. Referring to soldier patients the Minister .said that the Government stood by the principle that the cost of their treatment should be a national rather than a local response bility.