HEALTH INSURANCE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 182, 19 August 1937, Page 7

HEALTH INSURANCE

-Mr. Christie Outlines Benefits of Scheme i — — THE NEED FOR PENSIONS f National health, schemes" aTe not kew, ' *. said.Mr H. M. Christie, M.P. for ihe Waipawa electorate, addressing U meeting at Havelock North last night, f'Such ^chemes have been successful in Britaux and we hope to improve and expand on them. Most of us accept the priacijde uf insurance of . anything-' which. we value, 3?he friendly societies have done good work with healthanSurance arrangements, but so many who need thq behefit of such a schemo cannot get it.'* The proposed national health insurance scheme and the national schemo for euperannuation wcre creating tho greatest interest to-day. No iinality had been reached' in either by the Governinenty^rat both would bo designcd to benefit the .people. The presdnt method of rating oh land for hospital xevenue was not fair, Mr Christie contended. Members of hospital boards in country districts oftdfi lived foo far away and were not in elose ettough touch' to give the service requifed. In the end the socretary was left .to do all the work. Compared with. other countries the hospital 'service in New Zealand was .very good, butit could be better. The hospital boards had to think of tho ratepayers and keep down costs as. much as possible. It was impossible to give .ihe amount of speeialised treatment necessary in the country districts and the poorer people could not get it at all. For example, treatment for tubexcnlosis was hampered because hospital boards would not send patients away to sanatoria if they knew the . patients could not alford to pay. They pxpferred to treat them themselves. Whenjthis treatment was unsuqcessful, the patient was in a bad way by the time he was at last admitted to a sanatorium and this xesulted nltimately in greafer expense, ^'We abelieve. we can get better coerdination with a health scheme, ' ' said Mr .Christie, ( 1 but ihere.has been no suggestion that hospital boards wili be done away with.," The soperannuation scheme, similariy, should be extended to. all the people 5n New Zealand, Mr Christie maintained. ' Already such . schemcs operated in the Civil Service and in banks and other large business organisations, but these schem.es did not .reach the classea -most needing such assistance. ■ "The paymenE of a pension, as at present, is not a chafity, altliough many feel it is," (said Mr Christie. "Those wlfo get it have invariably earned it. They may not liave the money, but someone else has benefited from their work. We have already done a great deal to enable the peneioners to live and I do not think that any Gfovernment coming into power in this country in the futuro would dare to repeal this legislation. ' ' L