SOCIAL SECURITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1941, Page 5

SOCIAL SECURITY

X=RAV SERVICE MADE FREE MINISTER ON MEDICAL BENEFITS. HOSPITAL 1 BOARD COSTS & RATES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. An announcement that free X-ray service would be available in public hospitals and some private plants in various parts of the Dominion from Monday, August 11, was made by the Minister of Health. Mr Nordmeyer. when speaking in the Budget discussion in the House of Representatives last evening. Discussing Budget figures, the Minister said that no extra taxation would have been necessary last year to operate the medical and pharmaceutical benefits in their entirety. A sum of £600,000 provided in the estimates was the amount which the Government believed would cover the cost of paying the doctors for the medical service which it was Hoped they would bo rendering to the public in implementation of the Government’s pledge to provide free medical service, the Minister said. The cash surplus in the Social Security Fund was £1,867,000 at March 31, Mr Nordmeyer stated. Some people imagined that if the medical scheme came in in its entirety and the pharmaceutical benefits were -also operated fully, additional taxation would be required. “My answer to that criticism is that had the doctors been in for the whole of the financial year and the chemists for a similar period, there would not have needed to be any increase in taxation so far as the Social Security Fund is concerned.” Sir Alfred Ransom (Opposition, Pahiatua): “Can you explain how the hospital rate on local bodies has not been reduced?” “Yes,” Mr Nordmeyer replied. “There area number of explanations.”' One was that last year when the first effect of the Social Security payment was felt there was an appreciable fall in the rating of almost every hospital board in the Dominion. This year the estimated expenditure of hospital boards had gone up, in some cases considerably, due to a number of factors, one of which was that a lot of the stocks of hospitals, being imported lines, were appreciably increased in price. Furthermore, the Government had asked that hospital boards should lay up a very considerable supply and most boards had at least six months’ supplies of various types of goods that might be required; some even had 12 months’ supply. Sir Alfred Ransom (Opposition, Pahiatua): “Want of confidence?” “Simply a war time measure,” the Minister replied. “It is recognition that international events may make it impossible for these things to be pro- | cured. It is a wise precaution.” I Many boards, he added, had had to | expend a very considerably increased sum this year to give effect to the Government's policy of laying up stocks. Mi- Polson (Opposition, Stratford): “Will that mean any increase of the rates?” The Minister: “No, because it is provided for in this year's estimates.” The other explanation was that many boards, for one reason or another, had delayed their building programme, the Minister continued. They had to build at a time when, admittedly, costs had been increased. To meet those capital costs, the ratepayers and the State would have to bear an increased contribution.