ke } a ‘world have * maximum type of health insur- LPP CALLS ON PARLEY FOR ACTION Establish health plan now | Following is the text of the representation made to the Federal-Provincial Conference on Health Insurance by the national committee of the Labor-Progressive party: ; The Labor-Progressive party stands for the immediate - establishment of an all-inclusive health insurance program to be applied throughout the country. We favor a system that will provide adequate and complete coverage for every man, woman and child in Canada and to include diagnostic, physi- cian and surgery service, hospitalization, convalescent care, nursing, mental hospitals, TB sanatoria, confinement care, drugs, dental and optical services. In our opinion, an all-inclusive health insurance scheme _ also must provide payment for loss of wages and salaries during ill-| ness so as to eliminate suffering to the patient and his dependents whose income is cut off as a result of illness. Knowing, how- ever, that such a maximum health insurance program would, at this stage, meet with considerable re- sistance from our present govern- ments and from those’ groups in our community who fiercely resist payment of their due share of taxation, we confine our present proposals to the more limited level of health insurance as out- lined ‘above. ' That there is an urgent need for the immediate introduction of health insurance scheme we petition for is now almost uni- versally recognized. : Most advanced countries in the world have had one or another form of health insurance program in operation for many years. In our own country every segment of the labor movement, farm organizations, social service and religious bodies have repeatedly petitioned the federal and pro- vincial governments for the: en- actment of such schemes. The advances made in the dia- ‘ gnostic and treatment areas of the medical profession with the subsequent sharp increases in the costs of such services have only intensified the public demand for health insurance. The popular demand for this service was long ago recognized by almost all political parties in our country. In fact, the Liberal party, which is now in power, has gone on record as far back as 1919 as favoring a national health insurance program. Towards the end of the last war, this pledge was renewed by the party in power, it was introduced as an immediate objective at the 1945 Dominion- Previncial Conference, and a model health insurance bill actually was printed by the Liberal government. The socialist countries of the in operation the ance schemes. The advanced capitalist countries also, under _ the pressure of their people and! as a result of world events, have| introduced or improved existing health insurance programs to a much higher level. In our own country a number of provinces have introduced limited and varying types of pro- vinee-wide health insurance pro- grams. But until now, Canada, one of the richest countries in the world, still is lacking a cohesive and adequate health insurance plan to cover the entire country. The lack of such coverage on _ the one hand and the increasing difficulty for wage and salary earners to meet the cost of health _ protection have caused the trade union movement to raise the de- mand for health insurance cover- age to the forefront in all labor negotiations. In fact, there have been many strikes for the achievement of some type of medical and hospital schemes. We wish also to emphasize that it is untruthful to say that the poorest section of our popu- lation is now receiving free medical treatment as indigents. The fact is, such “indigents” are as a rule pressured and hounded by municipal welfare department, as well as by pro- vincial mental and TB hospitals, for repayment of the “debt” incurred while being hospital- ized as “indigents.” All the above and much more that ‘favors a government health insurance scheme is well known to you, ministers gathered at this conference, and to all who take an interest in the health and well-being of our people. Aside from certain selfish groups who seek to block govern- ment health insurance programs, no government and no _ public spokesman, with the exception of the present premier of Quebec, dares take an outright position against a government health in- Surance scheme. But failure to take prompt action to implement such a program is often publicly justified by government spokes- men on two major grounds. First, because of the supposed lack of hospital accommodation and the lack of trained person- nel to provide the hospital ser- vices that a health insurance pro- gram would demand. And, second, because of the lack of funds for the operation of such a program. We wish to make the following comments relative. to the above two -frequently advanced argu- ments: : ™ Lack of accommodation and personnel: We reject entirely this specious reasoning and con- sider it a crude evasion of govern- ment responsibility and a flimsy excuse for inaction in an area that is of vital importance to the well-being of the vast majority of our population. B . The continuous postponement of government action for health insurance on the grounds of lack of hospital accommodation and lack of personnel actually con- stitutes an admission that a large number of our citizens, who are now in need of hospital service, are unable to afford such service and are undoubtedly suffering the consequences of that neglect. This argument, therefore, rather than proving the need of postponing the introduction of health insurance, provides, in- stead, the most telling evidence in favor of urgent and immediate action for a public health insur- ance scheme in our country. _ As for the possibility of rapid- ly catching up with the inade- quate accommodation and train- - ed personnel, we state emphatically: our country is financially and in every other way fully capable of overcoming those shortages in very little time. _ : All that is. required is the genuine will’ on the part of our federal and provincial govern- ~ | have long ago introduced and ‘are “successfully operating ad- * | vanced forms of national health fe | insurance schemes. HON. PAUL MARTIN Who can’t afford what? ments to proceed in an emergency |fashion to meet the full needs of our people for adequate: hos- pital accommodations and the necessary trained personnel to provide the required services. We urge that the necessity for the defense of the health of our people be approached in the same manner as was. approached the need for conducting the success- ful war against the threat of Nazism and fascism, and we are confident that the same miracu- lous results will be achieved. ~ Lack of funds for the operation of an _ all-inclusive health insurance scheme: At the outset we desire to state that we reject any and /all arguments which are advanced against the immediate introduction of a com- prehensive health insurance pro- gram in our country on the grounds of inability to pay for it. The fact is that many coun- tried, far less rich than we are, Surely a country such as ours, which is now spending around two billion dollars a year on arms, can well afford to finance a health insurance program. Yet the federal Minister of Health and Welfare, Hon. Paul Martin, re- cently has stated that the financial demands made on the federal government as a result of the armaments race makes it impos- sible to introduce a health in- surance program at this time. Aside from the fact that is increasingly clear to Canadians and other people, that the armament race is both danger- ous and wasteful, it is of inter- est to point out that Britain, whose economy is certainly not healthier than ours, is also spending vast sums on arms and is, nevertheless, able to operate a national health in- surance scheme that is of a' rather advanced character: We furthermore believe that international events, and more particularly since the historic Geneva Conference of last sum- fully, justify the diverting of the money now spent on arms to meet the cost of a national health insurance scheme,. While sharing the belief that the provincial governments should be given the responsibility for administering the national health an appropriate cut in our arms expenditures would enable the federal government to provide the insurance program, which million a ‘year, without increas- ing taxes and without making any demands on our citizens to contribute out of their earnings towards the operation of such a program. Doubting, however, the readiness of the federal govern- ment to follow such a policy at this time and anxious that health insurance should come into being without delay, we support the proposal that the cost of operating an all-inclus- ive health insurance scheme be divided on a 60-40 basis be- mer, make possible and would | entire’ cost of a national health - tween the federal and provin- cial governments with Ottawa providing the larger share. It is also our opinion that the cost of operating mental and TB hospitals be included in the 60-40 division of financial responsibil- ity. We are convinced that such a financial plan is well within our means and should, therefore, be agreed upon at this present meeting of ministers and be en- acted by the federal and pro- 'vincial parliaments during their current sessions. It also should be pointed out that the operation of a national health insurance program, financed either completely by the federal treasury or shared be- tween the federal and provincial treasuries on a 60-40 basis would, in addition to protecting and ad- vancing the health of our popula- tion, also be a considerable aid to our hard-pressed municipalities who are now obliged to spend extremely large amounts on vari- ous hospitalization costs. While convinced of the correct- ness and soundness of our pro- posals for financing a national health insurance program as out- lined above, we feel duty bound to warn against any attempt to throw a large share of the cost of financing such a program directly on to the shoulders of the wage earners, the salaried people and the farmers of this country. In the first place, the vast insurance program, we say, by| majority of Canadians in these way of illustrating the point, that | categories are financially unable to meet such obligations. In the second place, it should be remembered that the syphon- ing off of any appreciable por- is|tion of the earnings of these estimated to require about $750. groups into the health insurance fund will seriously affect the purchasing power of the broad- est stratum of the* population, will thus have repercussions throughout our economy and will adversely affect the living stan- dards of the majority of people. We therefore urge that if you should decide to recom- mend a program that will be contributory in nature, that ‘such contributions from the wage and salary earners and from farmers should be kept to the very minimum and, in- deed, normal basis. ; “ LPP to enter 40 candidates — in coming Quebec elections — Headed by Gui Caron, its provincial leader, the LPP is entering at MONTREAL least 40 can- didates in the Quebec provincial election scheduled for next summer. “Contesting all the 15 seats on the island of Montreal and at least 25 additional seats in other parts of the prov- ince, the LPP is entering this campaign “as the only party sell-out policies shared by Duplessis and the Liberals.” Caron recently declared: “Our party sees in the election battles shaping up an opportunity for the people of Quebec to speak out decisively in the fight to stop the sell-out of our birthright. “Many people scoffed when the ‘LPP first said that the sales of our natural resources to U.S. in- terests was a crime agaihst the people. When we first warned that handing over control of our nat- ural riches meant placing the national life of French Canada in danger, there were few who heeded. a “Today tens of thousands o Quebec’ citizens recognize the correctness of that warning. We are proud that many diverse poli- | tical elements of French Canada ‘are today taking up the demand offering an alternative to the to regain control of our: ré- sources.” : Among the candidates already nominated are: ‘ Montreal: St. Louis — Gui Caron; Maisonneuve — Camile Dionne; St. Henri — Gerard Fortin; St. Jacques—Jeannette : Brunelle; St. Ann — Bill Wil- _mott; N.D.G. — Helen Hall; Jacques Cartier — Bob Had- dow; Outremont — Dave Ship; Verdun — Ken Perry; Ste. Marie—Eugene Casault; Jeanne Mance—Howard Madden; West- ee George—Frank Bren- on. : Others: Quebec East — Roger Messier; Montmorency — Pit Jolin; St. Hyacinth — Elphege Brunelle; Labelle — Romeo Lafond. : GUI CARON _ JANUARY 2%, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 10 7