READER'S VIEWPOINT

What interests are h;

national health insur

pants to cover the needs of a
: percentage,

As compared with corpora-~
tion insurance, they offer eas-
ier entry on easier terms, and
usually they meet their obli-
gations more promptly,

Largest and presumably the
most prosperous among them
is the Blue Cross, now known
as the Ontario Hospital As-
sociation. It was set up orig-
inally by a group of hospitals
as a means of filling beds with
Paying patients. For several
years, it got along nicely in
Contributions of one dollar per
month per member. It work-
ed so well that the hospitals
began to dig deeper ang deep-
er into its funds. Up went its
rates, and up went hospital
rates even more, for all pa-
tients whether members or
non-members,

Today, with a membership
of one and three-quarter mil-
lion, it practically blankets the
province, and under its’ group
plan it still admits almost any-
one regardless of age, or phy-
sical condition.

(in this letter, A. D. Mc-
Dougall, a reader, elaborates
his views on national health
insurance, which he describes
as “an acute national need.’’)

Since the days of Confeder-
ation, the people of this coun-
try have been pathetically un-
protected against the cost of
accidents and illness. Decades
ago, when doctors concentrat-
ed’ on home treatments and
when hospitals — such few of
them as were available — diq
not gouge patients as they are
doing now, victims of mishaps
and sickness managed: to “get
by”, but at an incalculable
cost to health and happiness.
Somehow, without going into
bankruptcy, they did leave a
terrible total of unpaid medi-
cal and hospital bills.

With the growth in popula-
tion and a-steady increase in
the cost of living, the situation
has become acute.

Today, notwithstanding the
many new hospitals built or
part building and a vast ex-
tension of old ones, the situa-
tion is a truly tragic one. Home
treatments have been 90 per-

ital But what has happened
cent supplanted by er financially?
i See er ust i ee hospitals

pies and new equipment of
the most expensive kind. Yet
no one but a person of ample
means can afford hospitaliza-
tion.

A poor person is not wanted
in a hospital at all; a person
of limited resources is likely to
be “bled” dry and to incur
a load of debt. Thousands of
people who should be in a
hospital, are either walking
around and suffering in si-
lence, or dying slowly at home
day by day; and many of these
are unemployed because of
their condition — misery add-

“bled” the Blue Cross forcing
it to raise its rates again to
the outrageous figure of $4.70
per month for a married
couple without dependents so
that now many people cannot
afford even this kind of pro-
tection. In practice, the Blue
_Cross, or another hospital as-
sociation, is still one of the
safest and best of all hospital
insurance schemes. But _ its
rate raising has created a gol-
den opportunity for insurance
companies which are really
going to town on the public
with popular ang promising—

Earn enlaety. very promising — plans of all
Into this situation have, step- kinds.
ped insurance corporations A national health scheme,

with accident and sickness and
hospitalization plans and poli-
cies of various kinds, and they
are doing a land office busi-
ness. A number of cooperative
non-profit organizations, in-
cluding - Associated Medical
Services, and the Blue Cross,
were set up to provide hos-
pitalization, financed by month-
ly fees, collected from all
members. These gave, and
some, of them are still giving,
cheaper and more comprehen-
sive protection than insurance
corporations ever provided.
_/in_ principle, within their

covering the whole population,
operating independently of the
hospitals and financed by com- ©
pulsory contributions,. could
and probably would protect
every one more completely and
at less cost per capita than any
cooperative or corporation,
with a limited clientele, is now
doing. It is a national need,
and -it would be popular with
ninety percent of the public.
When originally incorporat-
ed as a plank in the CCF plat-
form, it found such favor that
the. Conservative party stole
the. idea; for political advan-

limitations, the cooperatives tage, of course. But what did
are a foretaste of state medi- the Liberals do about it?
cine — they depend on the Through 22 years of office

contributions of many partici- the Liberals toyed around

olding up
ance plan?

with the Proposition, throw-
ing out hints, half promises
and intimations that sooner
or later they would bring
forth a National Health In-
surance plan, patterned after
Unemployment Insurance.
Why? All governments, and
all members of sovernments;
are influenced: by lobbies and
the lobbies in turn are fin-
anced by interests behind the
scenes. Corporate interests in
the health and accident in-
surance field have put up a
tremendous lobb Y against
State medicine of any kind.
They have put the pressure
of their millions of dollars on
parliament and the medical
profession has done the same
thing. :

The Liberals, always “play-
ing up” to big money,
that a sovernment-sponsoreq
scheme of that kind would
be. an infrigement on the
rights of private ' enterprise,
and would be Opening the
way for state socialism,

Yet, Canada has already

seen state health insurance in
operation. It has been sucess-
ful and very popular in Eng-
land, although perhaps it
plunged a little too deeply at
the beginning, it ig working
Very well “under a CCR
government in Saskatchewan.
British Columbia found it
fairly satisfactory:. and any
faults which developed in
Be; hospitalization schemes
were largely the result of
maladministration and meth-
cost of health insurance,

~“ One of the most persistent
parliamentary opponents of Na_
tional Health Insurance, was
Honorable Brook e Claxton
and because of his cabinet
status his opposition carried
a lot of weight with the rank
file of the Liberal party. It
was therefore not surprising
that when he resigned from
the government, he stepped
right into a $50,000 a year
job as vice-president of the
Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company, a corporation which
has a vital interest in pre-
venting anything like state
medicine. : "
State Health Insurance is
bound to come, sooner or
later because people demand
it. Meanwhile, thousands and
thousands of Canadian citi-
zens who cannot afford any
other kind of health and hos-
pital protection live in fear.
Thousands -and thousands
more incapacitated by illness
are losing almost enough time
and productivity to cover the
cost of Health Insurance,

A. D. McDOUGALL

argued.

On brotherhood

OLD SUBSCRIBER, Vancou-
B.C.: Trade unions seem
Considerable
€mphasis upon brotherhood, It
1S) tof course, a fine ideal
whether €xpounded in church
or in a trade union meeting.

Nevertheless, What does
trade union brotherhood really
amount to? Often, sadly en-
ough, it amounts to very lit-
tle when .one considers the
back-biting and the throat-
cutting that goes on among
trade union brothers,

Of course, working class
history is replete with noble
and heroic examples of broth-
erhood and Solidarity,

I would Say to trade union-
ists: the next time you fee]
tempted to act in an unbroth-
erly fashion toward fellow
members, it might be well to
re-read the solemn words of
the undertaking you entered
into when you joined your
own particular union. Read
it and then live up to it.

Another contradiction is the
matter of working class snob-
bishness, that is, the upper
categories of workers looking
down on the lower—however
litle removed they may be, as
in the case of different cate-
gories of laborers.

Let us remember that broth-
erhood implies equality.

A good question

PUZZLED, Vancouver, B.C.:
The problem facing me as
well as 700,000 other Cana-

March 14, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE

5 de
dians is the problem of f#
ing work.

I am unemployed. witl
my unemployment insura?
benefits I can pay for es
room and have about two %
cent meals a week, space 1)
between with very smi
snacks, mostly cups of coffe™

In crucial situations such
as these the human brain
comes a little more active
critical, the human body mu®
weaker. j 1)

7
I hear our clever ‘leade!
speak and they are full %
nice promises, the same 5%
of things the last ones wel
I also see that most of the?
are “degreed” men, just ® |
management directors as W®
as some union leaders hav®
honorary university degree®
Then I ask myself: “How *
it, with all this congregatio®
of learned individuals, we an
in such a chaotic situation?

The answer may be that
certain phases of our educa
tion are archaic. That mayb@
they teach a man how 1
balance a tea cup with a platé
at the edge of one knee very
well, and how to enunciaté
his words. They must als?
teach how to escape from real
ity but not what to do about
it,

Mind you, I’m not ‘against
truth and knowledge. But are
these gentlemen symbols of
truth and wisdom? Sometimes,
however, I think that honor-
ary degrees are being placed
on the noble brows of our
political idiots by other and
greater idiots. :

Sai