NATIONAL HEALTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1938, Page 7

NATIONAL HEALTH

UNIVERSAL SERVICE ESSENTIAL ACCORDING TO DR. D. G. McMILLAN. SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSALS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The conviction that the most important single factor in the Government’s health insurance scheme was the principle of a universal service was expressed by Dr. D. G. McMillan (Government, Dunedin West) when moving the Address-in-Reply in the House of Representatives last night. Dr. McMillan said that the Government dare not depart from that principle if it was to obtain a service natural to the New Zealand national outlook and democratic ideals. “The universal principle is the foundation stone which will determine the status of the service,” he said. “If the foundation is incorrectly laid the harm may be irreparable. New Zealanders will never respect or tolerate a system which gives one type of service to the poor and another to the well-to-do. Any scheme which savours of a poorman service, which divides the people into groups and which differentiates in the mind of the doctor either consciously ,or unconsciously between patients, would be foreign to the aspirations of the Government in particular and the people of New Zealand in general. We visualise our national health insurance scheme operating on the same principles as our educational service with all contributing to its upkeep

and all able to participate freely in its benefits if they wish.” AVERAGING EXPENSES. Dealing generally with the benefits of the scheme, Dr McMillan said that the average amount spent by New Zealand people in health services today, was approximately 4 per cent of their income, or 9d in the £l. If each person’s medical expenses were the average expenses there would be little hardship, but the few people who became ill had to shoulder all the costs. The only way to meet the situation was on a group payment basis by adopting the principle of insurance and converting the risk of the individual into the risk of the group. As New Zealanders spent upward of £7,0000,009 a year on various health services it could be seen that the problem was not to find more money but newer and more efficient ways of spending that money. “Expenditure under the existing system does not give us good value,” Qr. McMillan continued, “and this can be seen, by considering the present state of' the health of our people. Our human capital—the money value of men—is by far the largest capital investment which society possesses, and it depends entirely upon the health of the people. Thus, from a strictly financial point of view, health has great value, and it is sound economy that considerable sums should be spent for its preservation.”

Owing to inability to pay for treatment, a great many people in New Zealand today did not receive anything like adequate health attention, and if all the facts were taken into consideration, as well as reduced productivity due to ill-health, the alarming conclusion would be reached that disease must reduce the people’s productivity by at least 30 per cent. The best results could only be obtained from the point of view of the health of the community when all the health services were organised, co-ordinated and controlled as an administrative entity. PROPOSALS OUTLINED. Dr. McMiilan outlined the proposals the Government had placed before the Parliamentary Social Security Commitee. The first five benefits enumerated—universal general practitioner service, free hospital and sanatorium treatment, free medicines, free maternity services and grants to assist needy mothers in the purchase of a layette—would be established at the inception of the scheme, and the others, which included specialist optical and dental services, home nursing and health education, would be introduced as soon as the administraitive machinery and technical staff could be organised. Dealing with the way in which hospital boards would be financially assisted by the Government, Dr. McMillan said that free treatment would be provided and the Government would pay the boards a substantially higher sum than they collected today. That hospital expenditure weighed heavily on the ratepayers was shown by the continual and steady increase in the sum of money demanded by the hospital boards from the contributing local bodies. The existing system of hospital finance, based as it was on the principle of poor relief, had broken down, and must be replaced by the Government’s universal group insurance system.

“How will the scheme operate?” Dr. McMillan asked. “When the time comes for it to be started all the medical men willing to take part will be asked to hand in their names. The list of names will be made available to the public, and the people will be able to name their own doctor. Every three months, if it is desired, the individual will be able to change his doctor, so that there will be the same freedom of choice on the part both of doctor and patient as there is today.” Dr. McMillan said he believed the friendly societies were agreeable that the Government should handle the medical benefits which they now provided. Members of friendly societies would no longer pay a dispensary fee or a medical fee. At present the societies did not even make the administrative costs of the health services, so that they would not lose a penny through these being taken over by the Government.