ep

No deterrent fees

THE proposal of the Socred government in Victoria to
introduce a tax on health services to be known as
a deterrent fee shows that the opponents of a comprehen-

sive public health scheme don’t intend to attack the plan
openly. Instead they aim to whittle it down and amend
it in such a way that the public will be robbed of the full
benefits of the plan, while those with a vested interest
will have that interest protected.

The theory behind the B.C. government’s proposal
is that the plan will attract freeloaders and that it will be
necessary to impose a compulsory fee on everyone seek-
ing health services under the plan. Therefore, to prevent
“abuse’ of the plan the Socred government plans to
“abuse” the entire population when they need medical
services.

Is it any wonder that the big business press and
spokesman for the medical profession have hailed the de-
terrent fee plan as a great step. One Vancouver newspaper
referred to the proposal as ‘“‘just what the doctor ordered.”

NDP leader Tommy Douglas was absolutely correct
when he said last weekend that he was opposed to “levy-
ing of a deterrent fee because such a fee deters people
from going to hospital or incurring medical expenses and
is simply a tax levied on people because they committed
the crime of getting sick.”

The government and medical profession should not
try to kid anybody. The purpose of the deterrent fee is to
deter or prevent people from using the plan on pain of
having to pay a stipulated amount to start with. Many
workers and their families will hold back from seeking
health services when they might be vitally necessary in
the early stages of sickness, because of the initial cost in-
volved. This is exactly what proponents of the tax on
health are counting on.

The stand taken by Health Minister Martin at the
Ottawa meeting last week sought to implement the sys-
em of deterrent fees into the whole national plan when it
is finally introduced. B.C.’s Socred government is thus
leading the fight nationally to emasculate the Hall Com-
mission proposals for a comprehensive health scheme.

The people of B.C. owe it to themselves and «ll Cana-

Banc let) RR ny ie af

al

—Mauldin in St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Malice in Wonderland

Canada

and OAS

| F ever ‘proof was needed why Canada should stay out
of the Organization of American States (OAS) it was

provided last week when the U.S. government pressured
the Latin American countries into passing a resolution
condemning Cuba and calling for strong economic and
diplomatic sanctions against the tiny island republic.

Had Canada been a member of OAS we would have
been under pressure to go along with this latest U.S. pro-
vocation. We are much better off not having to play the

dians to strongly oppose the deterrent fee plan.

Tom

McEWEN

Tom McEwen is away on holiday
for a few weeks. In place of his
regular column the PT brings our
readers guest columns. This week’s
guest column is by BOB WARD,
columnist for the U.E. News, To-
ronto.

LTHOUGH it may seem some-
what strange we were pleased
at UE’s national council meeting
in Peterborough to hear a dele-

gate say his daughter thought he -

was ‘square’, Such incidental in-
telligence was heartwarming as
we thought that this type of teen-
age terminology was beamed
rather exclusively at us,

Our daughter has long contend-
ed that we are a‘square,* Indeed,
on occasions she qualifies this
and calls us a ‘triangle,’ ‘‘Like
that’s a square, daddy-o, with
something missing,’’

Such irreverence touches the
quick, However, it’s one of the

prices we pay for having ‘de-.

mocracy’ in the home, Early in
our wedded blitz days wetold our
missus that democracy must pre-
vail in the home, “Our father,”
we told her, “was really old-
fashioned, He believed kids had
a place and he really knew how

to put us in it, But here’s one
‘guy who will never be accused of
‘this kind of stuff’, At the time
these were brave words,

But as one little democrat
after another came to inhibit

our abode the proclamation about

“democracy.in the home has made
_thiiigs pretty hard to live with,

The kids, you see, soon found
that they ‘and their mother could

_out-vote us any old time on any

old issue,

So here we sit — a square —
or, if you prefer, a triangle —
and according to the kids, an old-

fashioned one to boot,
* * Xx

The topic of ‘squares’ came up
at the meeting during debate on
the problems of youth, The speak-
er made the point that all of us
need to know our own youngsters
better than we do, He cited the
Beatle craze as the grounds
where he and his daughter cross-
ed chords, His remarks were
carbon copies of dialogue that oc-
curs regularly in our home,

Take the Beatles, The kids
think they’re like, well, the liv-
ing end, daddy-o, And from our

unpopular U.S. game in Latin America.

own badly warped point of cul-
ture, we sometimes feel that
we'll ‘end living’ if we hear
one more “yeah, yeah, yeah,”

“We didn’t raise our children
to be Beatles,” was the way we
tried to get them to understand
that they should stick to their
classical piano, violin music and

closely shaved heads,
KOK

The result of our sage advice
has been far from gratifying, Our
home now houses two guitars,
every recording The Beatles have
cut, an assortment of Beatle wigs,
outsize Beatle buttons about the
size of pie plates, and “yeah,
yeah, yeah,”

We thought we might pick up a
point in the argument by recalling
our youth when athing called jazz

was the rage,

“It must have been real crazy
in the olden days,” the 1l-year
old remarked, And in trying to
think back in a serious way we
have to admit it was “realcrazy,”

Recently at a teen-age party
at our house Amy and I decided
that maybe “I Want To Hold Your
Hand” was our beat, so we joined
in the dancing, Our entry to the
dance evoked immediate interest,

All the kids sat down, All the
kids laughed, All the kids made
pointed comment, “What’s wrong
with our dancing?’ we asked our
daughter, “It’s the beat, dad,” she
told us, “this just ain't your
meat,” ‘

-

Well, we’ve been thinking a lot

~ about that too,

* kK *

Matter of fact we’ve been
thinking more and more that the
kids are right,

We are a bit of a triangle, for
sure, And on this “beat” kick, we
have to confess that our feet don’t
track, Sometimes we feel that we
have a bit of a beat in our head
and heart but we just can’t seem
to get our feet to realize ‘it,

But .as the kids say, “we’ve
gotta learn to get with it.” Our
national council meeting pro-
claimed a well-known fact; that
today in our country the young
people are rapidly becoming a
lost generation,

They have grown up in the era
of the nuclear bomb, cold war,
automation, Our society hasn’t
concerned itself with the very

a

There is an 11 percent federal sales
fax on alcohol. There is an 11 percent
federal sales tax on prescription drugs
in Canada.

Canada is the only country in the ~

world that puts such a tax on drugs.
Canada is the only country on earth
that kicks a man when it hurts the
most and when he is least capable of
fighting back—when he is sick . . -

The hidden tax that makes Cam

ada’s druggist ‘‘sick’’ costs the ill and”

diseased people of this country almost
$11 million annually.

—Elizabeth Graham, in the

Ind. dant Riki ai
Pr

*

Asked by Der Spiegel (West Ger-
man paper) if he ‘“‘would go fo the
brink of war,’’ Goldwater replied:

.‘Yes, just as your country has used
brinkmanship down through the years
and done so very successfully.”

—THE WORKER

*

We demand the return of our Sude-
ten German homeland of which w@
have been robbed. The Munich Agree-
ment of 1938 is an internation@
agreement, valid in international law.
The Sudeten German areas are right-
fully German areas.

—HANS-CHRISTOPH SEEBOHM,
West German Transport Minister

*

A banker is a fellow who lends his
umbrella when the sun is shining and
wants it back the minute it begins fo
rain.

—Mark Twain

real problems of young people.

There has been much too much
parental sniping at the fads and
foibles of our children, If we’reé
honest with ourselves and with

them we have to admit we did

some pretty nutty things, wor-_
shiped idols with clay feet, sane
pretty corny songs, Another
thing, if we think back, our pat~

ents despaired of us much of the

time,

In the next little time our unio?

intends to do something about

problems of our young people

How about jobs? How about oa ae
cational opportunities? How abou"

their future?

We need to get out in every —

community and win public SUP”
port for this cause, We need 2
the help we can get,

Like the kids say, we need

understand the“beat” inthe worl?
we live in, :

Vancouver 4, B.C.

of postage in cash.

Editor — TOM McEWEN __
Associate Editor — MAURICE RUSH
Circulation Manager — JERRY SHACK
Published weekly at Room 6 — 426 Main Street

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Phone MUtual 5-5288

ee

July 31, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Po9® A

a