§ 36. Mr. Boyd-Carpenterasked the Minister for the Civil Service whether he will withdraw facilities from the Civil Service Medical Aid Association.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterWhile thanking the right hon. Gentleman for that wholly satisfactory answer, may I ask whether it carries the implication that he totally rejects the doctrine of the Secretary of State for Social Services that such associations involve queue-jumping and are an unhappy element in the National Health Service?
§ Mr. ShoreI must disappoint the right hon. Gentleman there. He can infer no such thing from my reply. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services went out of his way to make it clear that he was neither seeking to encourage nor to discourage these schemes. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] He was seeking to make it plain that private insurance schemes offer no solution to the financial problems of providing a decent National Health Service for all our people.
§ Mr. PavittWill my right hon. Friend reconsider his answer in view of his latest remark? Should not only this plan but B.U.P.A. and other plans in other Ministries be revised?
§ Mr. ShoreI had better make it plain to the House that the scheme which has been referred to was introduced for civil servants in 1929 and therefore long antedated the National Health Service. The amount of encouragement or assistance which is given to the scheme by the Government is really minimal.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinI am glad to see that the Secretary of State for the Social Services has joined us. May we take it that the determination of the Government not to interfere with this valuable scheme for civil servants is a flea in the ear for the right hon. Gentleman?
§ Mr. ShoreIt is, again, no such thing, but I will leave it to my right hon. Friend himself to deal with this and other points later today.