Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 29, 1958, Winnipeg, Manitoba Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights to it Winnipeg free press printed of daily cent punday by Egurce press company in Mitra " i Carl on As i Tond Russ matter by we Lpez. Manitoba. In office department Ottawa. Tom. Kent editor Victor sift a coast Dexter in Elf associate editor s. Malone vice president a Western assistant editor Winnipeg tuesday july 29, 1958 glee in Moscow it would be silly to pretend that Tho Western Powers have come Oil Well in the correspondence with Russia about a Summit conference. The unpalatable truth is that or Khrushchev has had a Field Day at our expense. He has not rejected the Eisenhower proposal of a Summit meeting arranged by the Security Council he has simply derided it. He accuses the president of stalling for unworthy purposes. He offers to go anywhere suggests with Gleeful mockery if Security is a problem in new York he can vouch for everybody s safety in Moscow. Deftly exploiting a rift in the Western front he arrays himself with Premier de Gaulle endorsing French arguments for a conference in Europe. The Western Powers and especially the United invited this embarrassment. The Anglo american proposal was reasonable enough. Or. Macmillan stated it and let the matter rest. Or. Eisenhower chose instead to surround it with unnecessary acrimonious and rather pompous arguments. The whole impression thus created was that the United states had been backed against its will into a con Ference and was in a mood of angry resentment. It was an ungracious Retreat. It presented or. Khrushchev with a splendid Opportunity to score off the West and he pounced upon it with unholy Delight. He will go on scoring unless Western statesmen display More imagination and less spleen. Britain has now experienced ten years of socialized Medicine. In an article of this Page one of our British Cor respondents attempts to draw up a fair balance Sheet of its results. What he says in one article expresses the essentials of much that. Has been written at great length in the serious British press to Mark the anniversary. The comment has not been condemnatory there would for no Point in its being so. A state medical scheme is not something that can be thrown aside after ten years Experiment. Once you have it you live with it warts and All. Or As the London times expressed it in the editorial opening a Long Survey the National health service can justly claim to be a. National that is the times s pompous Way of making a virtue of necessity the highly developed skill of British conservatives. For the British it is the Only possible attitude. To put it in our correspondent s Way the Point is that no British government is now going to scrap the state health service. But that assessment should not be mistaken for advice to other countries. If ten years ago you decided to make a career in the automobile Industry you May Well feel that your Best interest now lies in sticking to it but that is not the same thing As advising someone else that it is the career for him to Start. British experience has shown that a state medical service can be organized to provide better service than some people could previously afford without at. Any rate a catastrophic fall in the standards of service to other people. It can be done but at great Cost and in face of considerable administrative and other difficulties. The administrative difficulties would certainly be even greater in a thinly populated Federal country like Canada than they Are for tightly knit Britain. The Cost problem is going to become increasingly acute for any sort of country. A Kas medical science progresses what can be done about health is subject to fewer and fewer technical limits and therefore there is less and less natural restraint on the costs of health service. Under a stale system the decision about what Standard of service shall be provided to whom thus becomes More and More a matter of political Choice a very difficult Choice and since there Are no objective tests by to make it a highly arbitrary and Uncertain one. It must be remembered that while in Britain the state service has been introduced without much deterioration in the standards of medical attention that people were used to those standards were appreciably lower than most people in this country expect. As standards Rise and medica.1 science advances the difficulty of providing adequate attention for the worst cases without incurring mounting costs All round is bound to multiply under a state system. Even this however is not the Basic problem about socialized Medicine. Under that system we do not As individuals pay our hospitals and doctors for services rendered simply because we Are paying them All the time through taxation of one sort and another. To the extent to which this Means a genuine redistribution that the really needy get health care they could not possibly afford otherwise it is entirely to be approved of. But for the average Man there is no such gain. He pays in through taxes As much As he gets out in services. This channelling of Ordinary medical costs through our tax system is at Best a Clumsy and wasteful Way of helping the minority who need help. At the time when state medical schemes were thought of this feature was taken relatively lightly. The general level of taxation for other purposes was much lower. But we now have no excuse for ignoring the economic damage done by High tax rates and especially the tendency to perpetual inflation that is the inevitable political consequence. It is in this rather i ban in the comparison of medical service before and after such a system As the British introduced in 1948, that the real costs of state Medicine Are to be found. They Are heavy enough to make it essential that we should look for More efficient and economic ways of achieving a satisfactory level of medical services for everyone. Koch Jar. Menzies in a Strong position Jno election budget for Australia by Herbert Mishef 1v1 liar a British View ten years of state Medicine t Ondon ten years ago Elj this month Britain s National health service prob the biggest scheme of socialized Medicine in the democratic launched. From july 5, every Man woman and child in Brit Ain became entitled free of charge to the services of Doc tors and dentists to medicines to Hospital treatment to spectacles false Teeth and hair and every other medicament. The taxpayer and the state insurance scheme picked up the Bill. Because of the enormous Cost of the scheme to the Treasury there have been a few retreats i from the principle the a j sol utely free health service since 194s. For example patients now have to pay Lor the first is2.so of any course dental treatment the state pays the rest. And the patient pays a shilling 14 cents to cover administrative charges every time a doctor writes out a prescription for him. By a a. D. M. But these Are Small modifications of the free principle. On the tenth birthday of the National health scheme there has naturally been a great de in the newspapers on How far the scheme has succeeded or failed. Let us try to strike a scrupulously fair balance Sheet. First has the service to the. Patient suffered there is s pretty Clear statistic in favor of the social Zers Here. Anybody who wants to can still remain a private patient of a doctor paying his Bills in the Norm a Way and gelling he old private patient service. But More than 97 per remembered words from at Onais by i cry Bysshe Shelley that Light whose smile kindles the universe a Cal of the population now chooses to go on the National this is an unusually Large response to a stale ser vice in this rather snobbish country of Britain. To Lake myself As a representative Case. As a Middle class Parent i still Send my Chil Dren to private schools and pay school fees although As a taxpayer i have paid my whack towards the provision of a state education system which i could use for free if t warned in. T think the private i schools give a better Educa i lion. But for medical treatment my family and f Are All on the National because we do not think that we would get significantly bettor serv ice by paying the doctor As a i private patient. And the same View s held by virtually All j my contemporaries in the pretty prosperous London sub Urb where i live. Secondly has the National health service been expensive to the country Here the balance of argument is against the social Zers. Britons Are almost certainly paying More for their health As taxpayers than on the ave rage though not of course in hard individual cases they would have paid As patients. Not Pul an appalling Strain on doctors and hospitals doctors were grossly Over worked Al the Start of the scheme but the Silva lion seems to have More or less righted itself now. And the payment doctors get from the state based on a fee for every patient on their National health list is reasonably generous by compari son with other professional salaries in Britain. Hospitals Are much More crowded than any Cri Sis Case whether a nation Al health patient or a fee pay ing one can of Couise still get a bed at once. But for hos Pital treatment and i Vesliga j Tion of sorts that can wait to lipid is a longer queue than before j if a doctor says that on the j whole we d better take your child s adenoids out when we can the average briton May find himself wailing six months to a year until a Hospital bed is ready and then the hos Pital May give one Only two Days notice. A More serious complaint is that the hospitals because of the heavy demand for their Beds Are More eager than be fore to move out patients for whom they can do nothing. More people who Are plainly and irreparably dying of old age Are now sent Home to die perhaps in loneliness where before they would have spent their last weeks under constant care in Hospital. There have been some publicised rows about this. Finally Are there any places where standards have fallen medical research and specialist services Are As Good As Ever in Britain. There is a Glamor in them. But who. Current medical costs weighing so heavily on the Treasury capital expenditure has been squeezed for budgetary Rea sons especially on buildings. Only one modern new state Hospital has been completed in Britain since the War. And some of the less glamorous services have been cinderellas for the same reason of enforced budgetary Economy. The state mental hospitals Are in. A. Controversially inadequate state. I think is the fair bal Ance Sheet after ten years of socialized Medicine. But what Ever its hidden faults the National health service is certainly popular with the electorate. No tory or labor government is Ever Likely to abandon it for the old system again. Bourne austra lians Are being conditioned by the Commonwealth i government not to expect any i Liberal income tax concessions in the budget to be presented to the National parliament in August. I individuals and companies have been hoping that the i Commonwealth government i will ease the taxation Drain on personal Effort and Industry i As an inducement to the Clec tors to return the Liberal and i country party composite gov i Ern ment at the notional Clec i Lions later this year. J employers in Commerce and j Industry Are especially resent Ful of the highly unpopular payroll fax because if discriminates against Large employers of labor and adds to the Cost of living through its cumulative effect upon All locally manufactured goods the Dis i Iris ution of imported goods the provision of transport facilities and the capital Cost of 1 slate Public works. But he prime minister or. J Menzies Lias warned Austral j ians that his government does j i not intend 1o present an dec j Tion Winnins budget for 1958 i j 1959. He said recently j i with hard experience be i j Hind us and a firm belief that i economic policies must have a steady objective and must be j constantly calculated to pro i Duce both stability and development. We Are not Likely to i abandon our principles at 1 this stage and leave the future i Afier the elections to look after or. Menzies h a s emphasized that the government s budget thinking is conditioned by three important factors first the tremendous fall of 1 about one third in farm inborn in the past 12 months secondly the decline in income i tax collections attributable to i last year s tax concessions and thirdly the maturing of i More than million in second world War Loans. L the australian govern said or. Menzies must direct its budgetary pol i icy As usual to the Best inter osts of maintaining economic i soundness keeping the value i of the currency As stable As i j possible and encouraging Pri i i Mike investment and future behind these Public an i i Noune Emels is the unspoken i political belief that the Liberal and country party National government can afford to take a calculated electoral i due to the wide schism in the australian labor party the official opposition. This belief is based upon several considerations. One of. These is the return of he lib eral and country parly to Power in the state of. Victoria. Meanwhile the break away democratic labor party has expressed its determination to contest All seats against the australian labor party in the House of representatives and Senate elections. Finally there i unabated National Confidence in austra Lia s future development do spite the unfavourable balance of overseas payments the de Cline in farm incomes lower prices for Rural products and some Rise in unemployment. The general impression is that the Federal budget will be closer to the Canadian Bud get of june 37 which gave a thin shaving off taxes but no significant changes in income or corporation tax. New Zea land s horror budget will not be duplicated in Australia. I the slump in overseas pric i for Australia s wheat Wool and other primary pro j and the fear of american i dumping of wheat on world markets upon which Australia relies Are causing acute gov eni ment concern in current budget discussions. Acreage sown to wheat in i Australia is the biggest for eight years and May exceed i the 1.1.600.000 acres planted in 1950. Australian alarm at Ameri i can wheat dumping will i bring a vigorous denunciation i of american Trade policies i when the Deputy prime min ister and minister for Trade ;