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