SOCIAL SECURITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1938, Page 5

SOCIAL SECURITY

REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS APPROVED. SUPERANNUATION & HEALTH SCHEMES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The report of the National Health and Superannuation Committee on the proposals of the Government to establish a national health service and a national superannuation service, tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday by the Rev. A. H. Nordmeyer (Government, Oamaru), chairman of the committee, states that after giving due weight to the representations made, the committee finds itself in accord with the Government’s superannuation proposals and recommends that these should be adopted. “Recognising, however, the desirability of providing universal superannuation without regard to other income or property, we recommend that immediately the procedure for the social security proposals has been instituted, the Government should consider the extension of the scheme to provide a gradual increase in allowable income until universal superannuation is realised,” the report further states. As to the health scheme, the committee rejects the alternative proposals submitted by the British Medical Association and expresses a belief “that the medical scheme should develop along the lines of the education system —be freely available to all whatever their rank, station, or income. If there are people in the community who prefer to make other arrangements for themselves —as there are in the educational world —they are entirely free to do so.” The committee' is also satisfied that the method of finance proposed by the Government is a sound one. “We are confident on the evidence of past years that it is within the capacity of the Dominion to extend production sufficiently to carry out the scheme, and we believe that it may well be found that it has made a large contribution toward a more rapid development of the country,” the report states. “The committee, therefore, recommends that the Government’s proposals for the financing of the scheme should be adopted.”