THE B.C. LUMBER WORKER Page Three More than a year ago, a draft _ bill on health insurance was pre- sented to the parliamentary com- mittee on social security at Ot- tawa by the Department of Pen- sions and National Health. Early _ this year, Hon. Ian MacKenzie pre- sented a new plan for financing health insurance to this commit- tee. The proposed bill is as yet in the stage of discussion and many groups’ throughout the na- tion, incliiding the IWA, are weigh- ing its merits. The health of Canadians is def- initely poor and we urgently need health insurance in Canada. The speech from the throne promised such legislation and most groups welcomed this promise. Last year the proposal was that the provinces would bear most of the cost of financing health insur- ance. However, this was found to be very unpopular and impractical for the provinces, so under the new scheme, the cost is largely met by an annual fee and a spe- cial tax levy. The annual fee affects every adult over 16 years of age, who is able to pay and will be charged a fee of $12.00 per year. In addi- tion to this annual fee single men will pay a special tax levy of three percent on income from $1, 200 to $1,600 a year. Married men In these days when we hear so of the factors that does make for When 93,000 Canadians 21 years service in 1941 it was discovered while 50 percent of the remainder he may occupy. It is obvious now this is a factor for progress. progress in the post-war world. established a Union Hiring Hall, will pay five percent on incomes from 12 hundred to 22 hundred dollars a year, Thus a single man earning $1,660 a year will pay a total cost of $42.00 a year. A mar- ried man making $2,200 a year will pay $74.00. Those who make more than this will also pay this amount, including the man who makes $10- 000 a year, For this money you receive first class service from your own doc- for, your hospital and medicinal bills will be paid. When you visit your doctor the bill will be sent to the government instead of to you. The objective, as stated by the minister, is: “Io make illness a collective responsibility of the community rather than have the entire burden* fall upon one fam- ily. The estimated total cost for the proposed health insurance is two hundred and fifty million dollars. ‘This amount will be raised in the following way. The $12.00 annual fee on adults will yield a hundred million. The tax levy will yield fifty million and the government will make a grant of one hundred million from general taxation. Each province will undertake the administration costs. We can all agree that Canada does definitely need health legis- Jation. The trade unions have de- manded it for years as well as other progressive organizations throughout the country. We have a form of state medicine at work in the army. whieh is applied very well and we should consider, after suggesting improvements intensi- fying the campaign to have. this Jegislation put through, ‘The improvement T am thinking of is in the method of taxation as the proposed bill tackles the prob- ~‘yem of financing from the wrong DExter 2524-M. Union Hiring Depends On Your Support -By DON BARBOUR, IWA Hiring Hall Manager In looking back over the past four years J note that I-went to work full time for the IWA on the very day that word came that that famous or infamous man of Munich, Mr. Chamberlain, had died. What historic four years they have been, and’ if every vestige of Munichism had been buried with Mr. Chamberlain at that time there can be no doubt our organization would be further advanced along the way that leads to economic security, the road that we are definitely travelling. will come with the cessation of the war I would like to point out some agree with G. G. Chesterton, who wrote, mean, inglorious business but it is not the direst calamity that can befall a people; there is one state at least worse and that is the state of slavery.” How applicable to countries that have been and are as yet under Nazi-control and a great factor for progress is their liberation which is drawing closer hourly, leaving these peoples the right to choose their own form of government. pass the air force test. The 21-year-olds of 1941 were the 12-year-olds in 1932 and it would only be an utter fool or a moron who would maintain that the conditions prevailing in Canada in the early thirties | were in the best interest of any Canadian whatever position in society | Also Dunkerque, Stalingrad, lend-lease, Cassino, Cherbourg and | many other events have, during the past four years, given us a com- mittee of nations that has every appearance of as successfully winning the peace as it now has of winning the war. A very potent factor for Four years ago it would have been a physical impossibility to have fact and right here I would like to express my thanks to Card No. 12690, whose letter in the last issue of our paper so aptly describes the need for Union Hiring. No member of our union can do less than his best to help maintain and improve the Union Hiring Hall. It is a 30,000 man and woman industry in B.C. and the Union Hiring Hall is one of the mechanics of our organization that will help main- tain decent hours, wages and conditions. 206 Holden Building.. Phone during the day, MArine 7051; evenings, much about the dire calamity that progress. .Certainly everyone can ar is in the main a dirty, of age were called up for military 33 percent were physically unfit, did not have enough education to that 95 percent of Canadians will but today it is an accomplished Remember the address, end. If, as the minister says, they intend to make sickness a collec- tive responsibility, then -they should carry this idea through into the financing. The first principle of taxation is on ability to pay. By the proposed method it would seem to be an ability to get sick. Here we have a married man making just over forty «dollars a week. He would pay a 24-dojlar annual fee for himself and his wife plus an additional five per- cent for his income over 1200 dol- lars. A man making 80 dollars a week would also pay only the 24-dollar fee but the: actual per- cent levy against his income would come to slightly less than two per- cent, And‘sa on up the ladder. If the tax levy were spread equit- ably over all incomes, based upon ability to pay, the burden on the small income would be less. As it is now the small wage earner will pay the great bulk of the expense. We should also note that corpora- tions are not taxed, yet they stand to earn improved profits from a health insurance plan, because their workers will be much better protected. Sickness today costs production as much as three mil- lion fiye hundred thousand man- working days per month. This time is lost to the worker and to the employer. This point on taxation is a very important one.” The federal government has an- the throne many splendid prppos- als for social reform in Canada. Many of us have already expressed our opinion in favor of such a pro- gram. But if these reforms are all going to be.taxed in such a way that the small wage-earner will pay the lion’s share of the cost then we must certainly try to put the government back on the right track. This health insurance plan would seem to indicate a change in our entire wartime tax struc- ture after the war -ends. If we intend to. have full em- ployment, if we are to carry na- tional unity into the postwar and embark on a full scale program of reform to raise the living stan- dards of the people then I be- lieve the government must revise this attitude towards these meth- ods of taxation. 5 The draft bill does attempt to provide a complete coverage for the whole population, and a com- plete health service with emphasis on prevention of disease rather than treatment. The entire popu- lation is to be covered regradless of occupation or income and the benefits are to be “such as to pro- vide for the prevention of disease and for the application*of all ne- cessary diagnostic and curative procedures and treatment, includ- ing medical, surgical, obstetrical, drugs, hospital and nursing bene- fits and limited dental benefits. The opinion of organized labor on most of these questions has al- ready been expressed by the two work successfully to prevent a recurrence of such a calamity, Surely | Minded the plan should be nationwide, and democratically controlled, and that it should cover everyone without regard to income, Many different opinions have been expressed on the matter of National Health Insurance. There are those who believe that an ade- quate plan of health insurance cannot be carried out under capi- talism and believe that it requires a socialist form of government to bring it about. This raises a point that we should be absolutely clear on. Health insurance can be carried out under a capitalist form of gov- ernment. It has been demonstrated in other capitalist countries older than ours. Look at New Zealand, Australia, and Sweden, for in- stance. Would you call them so- cialist countries? And what is the guarantee that we can obtain this health insur- ance? The- guarantee that it will be carried out, and. carried out properly will lie in the degree of unity that can be achieved in the | labor movement. If the major trade unions and the labor parties can get together with the progressive citizen groups and ap- proach this thing from a common viewpoint and with a concentrated attack by all these forces, no gov- ernment could withstand the pres- sure. That is the guarantee. We must, at the same time, real- ize that the King government rec- ognizes the necessity of postwar reforms if Canada is to maintain her high place among the nations in the postwar Such a program of reform is essential to a peaceful orderly world in the years: after the war. They know as do all think- ing people of all political parties of today, that there can be no go- ing back to the 1930's. True they may not like the idea; but they recognize the necessity. They will move forward slowly and grudg- ingly perhaps but there is. still plenty ‘of room for ‘social reform under capitalism. We should carry on our work for socialism as part and parcel of our fight for re- forms. This is the way we eventu- ally will win Socialism—as well as win a better standard of living for Canadians en route. Anyone investigating Canadian health’ will find the situation is absolutely terrible. The TB rate in Quebec for instance is twice as high as in Ontario, More than 2300 people die in that province every year from TB. And we know from recent statement the disgraceful situation on venereal disease Can- ada is away behind most- other countries in both these respects. I think a great deal of credit is due to the Junior Board of ‘frade for their great work in carrying the story to.the public and arous- ing attention to this problem. It was recently pointed out by Dr. L. B. Pett in a Toronto ad- dress that last year fifty million The British Est. “We Domina NEW WESTMINSTER nounced through the speech from congresses, They have agreed that DAILY and WEEKLY dollars was lost in wages by work- ers due to illness. From the stand- point of the industrialist, 75 mil- lion dollars was lost in produc- tion because of this absence from work. Besides the loss in wages the worker is burdened by the in- dividual bill. It has been estimated that Canadian people are paying annually two hundred and. fifty millions in sickness bill of all kinds. Already then, we have a total of three hundred and seventy- five million, which tops any estim- ate which has been proposed for the total cost of the national health plan for Canada. When you con- sider that we can now spend about four hundred and fifty million every month on the war and still have full employment, reasonable profits and the highest production in history this figure of two huh- dred and fifty million a year doesn’t seem too much to take from general taxation to finance the national health plan. In regard to health centres in Canadian industry many don’t even have rest rooms or lunch rooms. Industry should be drawn into this health insurance plan. They have much to gain and the proposed plan asks them to pay nothing. I believe industrialists would willingly pay a share of the cost and would institute health measures of their own if given proper cooperation and assistance by the government. It seems logi- cal to attack the health problem where there are large groups’ of people in one place—in the factor- ies and the schools. oe It seems to me that the follow- ing should be a sound basis to provide a national health scheme: 1. That we reject the proposed method of financing and recom- mend that health insurance be. fi- naced to at the same amount (two hundred and fifty million dollars) out of general taxation. through grants to the provinces, and with- out special fee or levy, in order that the cost shall be borne col- lectively by the entire nation based upon ability to pay. 2. That we urge an over-all plan to include community health cen- tres and building of hosiptals, to be financed out of the public trea- suries — federal, provincial arid municipal. 3. That a special committee, com- posed of labor, management, and medical authorities and the gov- ernment shall superintend the en- tire plan nationally to ensure-equit- able distribution of benefits and responsibility in all provinces. It is necessary, however, that all political parties, organizations and citizens. take immediate action by informing the federal government and your parliamentary representa- tive of your desire of having a na- tional health act placed upon the statute books of Canada. ; Columbian 1860 ite Our Field” BRITISH COLUMBIA