Priceless Health
When the Prime Minister said at the week-end that the pro- posed charges for teeth and spectacles under the health scheme raised no question of principle he was speaking the plain truth. The immediate decision on the proportion of health costs to be borne by the State is a matter of degree, and the most violent protests of Mr. Bevan's followers cannot alter that fact. Even at £400 million a year, expenditure on the health service does not cover anything like the total possible cost of keeping the people fit and well. There still remains a vast and untouched field of social and preventive medicine in which much larger sums could easily be swallowed up, and the public already manages to spend many millions every year on self-prescribed medicines which can be bought in chemists' shops. In fact the possible limit of expenditure on health is not in sight. An adjustment of £25,000,00,0 at the margin of Government expen- diture is a very minor question of degree. If Mr. Bevan and his friends really want to take their stand on a principle they had better. come out openly for the creation of a state monopob of all bean expenditure. It is possible that Mr. Bevan himself might be willing to do that, in view of his openly expressed opinion that "the Whole of society is the field of action of modern parliaments," and simply accept the fact that the struc- ture of public finance would then break down under the weight of this one charge. It is indeed difficult to absolve Mr. Harold Wilson from some such irresponsibility when he says that the already vast expenditure on subsidies should be increased. And although the trade union representatives who are arguing against the imposition of higher age qualifications for higher pensions may have a less clear notion of the consequences of their demands they are just as certainly thrusting in the direction of chaos in the national finances.
Previous page
