ANOTHER STAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1941, Page 5

ANOTHER STAGE

' MEDICAL BILL PASSES SECOND READING OPPOSITION AMENDMENT WITHDRAWN. PRIME MINISTER ASKS DOCTORS TO CO-OPERATE. 1 (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The second reading debate on the Social Security Amendment Bill was concluded in the House of Representatives last night. In the afternoon the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, asked for urgency to end the formal debate that night. It was evident that it was flagging, and after a speech by Mr. Fraser early.in the evening it tailed off. The Prime Minister attacked what he described as unfair tactics and misrepresentation employed outside the House in opposition to the Bill. He 2 then held out the olive branch to the ’■ medical profession whose co-operation he emphasised, the Government earn-

estly desired in operating the scheme. “The pledges given (to the public at the last two elections) are going to be fulfilled in as reasonable and cooperative a way as possible, and that is the aim of the amendments,” he said. The Opposition withdrew an amendment it had moved on September 11. This was to the effect that the Bill be deferred till the end of the war. The Opposition took the line that, by the amendments to be incorporated by the Government it had got substantially what it wanted. Replying to the debate, the Minister of Health. Mr. Nordmeyer, denied that the Government had brought in the scheme with a rigid mind. An the contrary, he said, it had obtained all the information it could from overseas and had gone to great lengths to determine what the doctors wanted. He ed that the great mass of the people would bless the Government for the Bill. The Committee stage will be taken today, when the amendments announced by Mr. Nordmeyer will be written into the Bill.

NEW PROVISIONS FURTHER EXPLANATION BY MINISTER. POSITION OF FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Amendments to the Social Security Amendment Bill promised by the Minister of Health, Mr. Nordmeyer, were introduced into the House by Govern-or-General’s message. “The alterations are just as I indicated on Tuesday night, except that where friendly societies are concerned there has been inserted a clause that now places beyond any possible doubt that the doctors may give service to the societies as they have done in the past,” the Minister said. “I do not think there was any doubfe in the original Bill, but the clause removes any possible obscurity.” The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland: “Is there anything about remitting the fees of the societies?” Mr. Nordmeyer: “There was in the original measure, and the offer to the friendly societies still stands,” The clause mentioned by the Minister when he was referring to friendly societies excludes from general medical services under the Bill any services provided by a doctor under an agreement with a friendly society or branch. Other amendments outlined by Mr. Nordmeyer earlier this week are embodied as he described them, but a clause restricting doctors’ rights to charge fees in excess of the amounts payable from the social security fund is omitted, and two new clauses are •included.

One states that where a doctor is entitled to receive from the fund any sum for general medical services or for pharmaceutical requirements provided, he may, instead of claiming payment from the fund, recover that amount from the patient or the person responsible for his debts. Where any person pays a doctor for general medi-| cal services he may receive from the fund a refund of the amount, provided that it does not exceed the sum the doctor would have been entitled to be paid from the fund. A doctor who receives payment from the patient is required to give a receipt to enable the patient to claim on the fund. The second new clause restricts the doctor’s right to recover fees to the rights specifically given in the Bill. FIXATION OF FEES QUESTION OF TRIBUNAL. .. CONDITIONAL OFFER MADE • BY PREMIER! WELLINGTON, This Day. An offer that, if the doctors would accept the original proposal that they should go to the Social Security Department' for full payment of their fees, their request for a tribunal to fix the amount of those fees would be 'granted, was made by the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, in his speech in the House last evening. “If the medical profession agree to operate the No. 1 proposal that they should go to the department for payment, then their claim for a tribunal would be valid, because the relationship would be between the doctor and the State,” said Mr. Fraser. “If the profession adopt that course the question of a tribunal will be fairly and favourably considered, and I can say that it will be granted. But the payment would have .to be in full settlement. The tribunal would have no purpose unless it fixed the full amount of the fee. Under the other method, however, the doctor does not claim from the Social Security Department. An amount is refunded to the patient on presentation by him of a receipt. There is no relationship between the doctor and the State, and, therefore, no room for a tribunal. Also the payment is not put forward as the full amount of the fee. The full amount is left to the patient and the doctor to decide. The liberty the doctors wanted ig fully left to them.”