HEALTH BENEFITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 February 1939, Page 9

HEALTH BENEFITS

UNDER SOCIAL SECURITY SCHEME

NOT TO BE INAUGURATED ON APRIL 1.

STATEMENT BY MINISTER,

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day,

“It will not be possible for the necessary arrangements to be made to inaugurate the medical and allied benefits under the social security scheme on April 1,” said the Minister of Health, Mr Fraser, in an interview last evening. The Social Security Act passed last session of Parliament provides for the administration of these benefits by the Minister of Health.

Mi’ Fraser said that in view of the negotiations that had to take place with the medical and other professions, as well as with the friendly societies, the inauguration of the scheme on April 1 was a physical impossibility. However, there had been and would be no unnecessary delay, and the Government proposed to have the full scheme in operation on the earliest possible date. This position in regard to the health section of the scheme was foreseen when the Social Security Act was passed and provision was made for the medical benefits to be inaugurated later than April 1 if that were unavoidable. This did not, of course, affect the monetary benefits such as superannuation and all forms of pensions, which would come into force on April 1. The secretary of the Dominion Council of Friendly Societies, Mr A. G. Shrimpton, said yesterday that some members of friendly societies were under a misapprehension that the medical and allied benefits intended to be provided under the Social Security Act automatically became available as from April 1, and that the contributions payable to their lodges for similar services ceased as from that date. As the health section of the Act was not to come into operation on April 1, lodge members, in. order to protect themselves and their families, should not relinquish their security under' the existing medical services provided by the lodge, and secretaries, in issuing the quarterly notices, should definitely point this out. Mr Fraser had informed him that ample notice would be given when the Government’s arrangements were complete.