HOSPITALS OF DOMINION

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21416, 7 March 1935, Page 14

HOSPITALS OF DOMINION

$ Compulsory Taxation Recommended ABOLITION OF PRESENT METHOD URGED U'BESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) HASTINGS, March 6. Compulsory taxation as a means of raising sufficient funds to operate the hospitals ol' New Zealand for those who cannot afford to pay for treatment in private institutions, rendering treatment free, and abolishing the present method of local body taxation, formed the subject of several important decisions by Ihc annual conference of the New Zealand Hospital Boards' Association, in Napier to-day. Tiie executive submitted the following recommendations, which were adopted. ~ The committee stated in presenting Us submissions, that the scheme had been viewed primarily for hospital and sickness insurance, and it was not considering unemployment. (1) That a national health insurance scheme is desirable. (2) That such scheme should be compulsory. (3) That it should apply to all in receipt of salaries or wages below the present income tax limits. (4) That it should apply to all persons in receipt of salaries or wages, within the limit prescribed, between the ages of 16 and G5 years. <r>) That it should provide complete medical service, and should include general practitioner service, hospital benefit. consultant and specialist services, maternity benefit, dental benefit, home nursing:, and such other types of medical care as seem desirable. (6) That it should include the dependants insured. (7) That the scheme should be a contributory one, and the contributions should be at a rate which was regarded as suitable from an actuarial point of view. (8) That the payment of doctors should be at a flat rate so far as the general practitioner service is concerned, and according to the work done for specialist and consultative services.

(9) That freedom of choice as between doctor and patient, which is such an important part of the scheme in England, should be incorporated in any New Zealand scheme.

(10) That the insurance scheme could be fitted into our existing machinery, and that in the Health Department and hospital boards we have now suitable agen-ies to represent partly or wholly the central Government and the local insurance committees. The conference resolved that the report be forwarded to the Government, and recommended that legislation be passed to give effect to it.