Friday, March 12, 1982

40°

Vol. 44, No. 11

‘Peace marches
best deterrent
fo nuclear war,
says U.S. leader

a

TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

2
fo
vw
[re
uw
oa
<
=

“x
a
Go

<4

|
‘S|
mS
je)
x
a
uw

Na
=
a

ag
=

s on a radar screen nearly caused the U.S. to launch a nuclear

i ob-

War, according to peace activist Sidney Lens, who addressed acres sed elite Boe Mat Ral nce

S0n Square Mar. 6. The noted American disarmament figure tol tc ao ty oa

Come close to a nuclear holocaust at least five times by accident, =” See natin Doaln@iay.

of confrontation by various U.S. administrations. Author of the boo : Acree cre ieteaced a

®Ns offered grim statistics on the effects of a nuclear ead alee De cae anoserabinn
Said that public demonstrations were the best deterrent to Wor

; in Vietnam,” he declared.
vine Sher HLSveuENS bad gla oo Ha in Se aatecctl a cladt war is terminated.”
Nd we will march and march and march aga!

(More on rally, peace conference page 11.)

A flock of geese appearing as blip

New increases in medicare
premiums and hospital charges
that have pushed British Colum-
bia’s health care user fees to the
highest in the country have been
condemned throughout the labor
movement as “hitting those who
can least afford to pay.”

Paddy Neale, secretary of hte
60,000-member Vancouver and
District Labor Council said that the
council would be considering a
protest at the council’s next regular
meeting Mar. 16.

And B.C. Communist Party
leader Maurice Rush, in a wire to
premier Bennett Wednesday, call-
ed on the government to cancel the
increases immediately, calling
them ‘fexorbitant and
discriminatory.

“They pose a threat to the health
standards of all British
Colmbians,”’ he declared.

The new increases which affect
medical premiums, hospital per
diem charges, emergency ward and
ambulance fees were announced
suddenly in a press release Monday
afternoon. Also introduced was a
new deductible to be applied
against the government-funded
portion of denticare.

The increases come only. nine
months after the fees were last
boosted in Aug. 1981.

Medicare premiums will rise
Apr. 1 from $11.50 to $15 for
single; from $23 to $28 for couples;
and from $28.75 to $32 for
families. Hospital per diem charges
rise from $6.50 a day to $7.50 while
emergency ward charges will dou-

Salvador
women in
survival

struggle

— page 9 —

ble to $4 and ambulance fees will
rise about 13 percent.

Inacynical comment on the new
rates, health minister Jim Neilson
claimed: ‘‘None of the fees in any
way will impose upon a person to
the point where there’s a
hardship.”’

But both Mike Kramer,
secretary-treasurer of the B.C.
Federation of Labor and David
Schreck, general manager of
CU&C Health Services Society
challenged that, charging that the
increases would hit hardest those
least able to pay, particularly low
income wage earners without
employer plans.

Schreck warmed that the in-
creases would have ‘‘disastrous af-
fects.” One of those, he said,
would be a ‘‘government-imposed
financial burden’’ on the public
sector which will have to pick up
the extra costs for its workers who
are covered while at the same time
facing Socred-imposed budget
restraint.

Already the only province in
Canada with both medicare
premiums and hospital per diem
charges, British Columbia will now
have the highest user fee charges
anywhere in the country. Although
Ontario’s medicare premiums are
still higher, that province has no
hospital charges for acute care. In
addition, premium assistance is
available to people with taxable in-
comes up to $5,500 annually. In
B.C., it is only available to those
with $2,800 taxable income or less.

———

Sisterhood: will it win women’s rights?

— page 4 —

ll