The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1914. BRITISH INSURANCE ACT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 194, 14 February 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1914. BRITISH INSURANCE ACT.

Few jActs passed by the present Home ! Government iiave been so misunderstood, or s6 • violently .assailed "as the IriMir ; .anceJA'et. . And probably its bitterest ■opponent,'ltas" J been'tUe British 7 Medical Association. It is therefore not sur-prising--to find the President' of that important body at the Medical Congress now .being held at Auckland 'inveighing against it and advising his ' fellow medicos to avoid connection with any scheme of the kind that may be attempted in this or any other British colony. Whatever its defects, there can be no disputing the fact that this is one of the most humanitarian measures ever evolved by a statesman oi Groat Britain, and that Its operations already have been attended with considerable success. In introducing the measure in 1911 the Chancellor describ-' ed it as a "measure that will relieve untoldmisery in millions of homes—misery that; is undeserved; that will help to prevent a good deal of wretchedness, and which will arm the nation to fight until it conquers 'the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the destruction; that wastc'th at noonday.'" It is doing this, and more. It goes further thari the German scheme, on which it i was based, and as time goes on and the; public begin to realise its vnlue and fecliits benefits, it will be regarded as one of the greatest social measures over put on the British Statute-book. Tho attitude of the medical profession towards it can be easily enough understood. They are a .conservative body and dislike; interference in any shape or form, but particularly by a Government.so insistent and determined as the British j Government has proved to be. Tho Go- I verninont, however, were riot unreasonable, and met the doctors liberally. This I is proved by a recent cable message in wliich Mr. Llbyd-George' showed that < the Government had distributed four and a-half millions amongst the doc tors, averaging' £230 apiece. He. also ' -n'lin.tioncd this significant fact, that) 20,000 out of 22,500 doctors in Britain ' were on the panel, though this number, he Wplained, included duplicates serving, on more than one panel. It has j also been shown by the London Times, which never manifestod any great regard for the insurance scheme, and always took the side of the doctors >n the.disputes and bargaining that took | pl.aqe at the initiation of the.scheme, that the measure of the benefits which bavfc come to the medisal profession 'from the Insuranae Act has been considerable. In cities and industrial centres tho incomes of the doctors have,, it soys, increased in almost every case.') .They have attained to a security of 'tenure hitherto unknown. Tho consequence is that thorc is an actual dearth of assistants. The Times continues: -'A tyear ago one could engage so-called 'indoor' help for £l2O per annum and 'outdoor' for £IBO. To-day the rates are about £2OO and £250 respectively, whilst in some eases a» much as £3OO with rooms |jind attendance is asked for. Doctors on ;board ships are getting £ls :md £2O per month where before the remuneration was only £lO, and there is a dearth of candidates for positions in the-Royal Navy. More serious is the dearth of junior medical officers in tho various public health departments. ■Men can no longer be obtained for the salaries which have hitherto been sufficient to attract them. So the demand is arising that the public should pay more." That js a remarkable effect of the* Insurance Act, which should be remembered in connection with the medical agitation against the measure. Besides drawing £230 a-picec from the -fund, the doctors have, it irr.sl be ic:mcmbcred, the field of the better-off classes to exploit, for the Act only offacts persons earning less than £IOO a year, employed in manual labor. The great middle-class and the '-upper class' still have to pay as before for their medical service. On financial grounds, therefore, we see no justification for Dr. MaeDonald's attack on the Act. His opposition, wo fear, arises from prejudice, maybe from pique. The B.M.A. resented the measure from the first, and for a time measured swords with the State over having anything to do wilh it. The State prevailed, and ever since the. Association lias ex •hibitcd soreness. But the fact remains that nearly all the medical men of Great Britain are actively and loyally co-operating with the State in carrying out this great and noble work, which must in the course of a few years have a far-reaching effect nationally. There arc, of course, defects in tho working of the system to be remedied. They can only be revealed by experience—as we know (o be the case, with our. original legislation in New Zoaland —and Dr. MacDonaid may well hold his band and suspend judgment until the scheme has been given a fair (rial. ' Of its success already there k substantial

evidence; of its ultimate success there cannot be the slightest doubt, providing the different parties are actuated by the spirit of its framers and co-opcr-ato willingly and harmoniously in carrying it out.