asked the Minister for Health, in view of the statement by the Secretary of his Department that free hospitalisation could be extended to the entire community at a cost of £5 million (details supplied), when he intends to extend this service to the community as a whole.
Written Answers. - Free Hospitalisation.
174.
The figure of £5 million mentioned by the secretary of my Department was not an estimate of the extra cost of extending to the entire population the arrangements for hospital care which now exist for those with incomes up to £5,500 a year. He did not give an estimate of what this might cost.
There is no proposal to extend the arrangements to which I have referred to the population as a whole.