73 INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SICKNESS INSURANCE
The Recommendation concerning the General Principles
of Insurance Sickness was adopted at Geneva in 1927 for the
purpose of assisting the member nations in the institution or
completion of their sickness insurance services. The prin-
ciples which are recommended to be followed are given under
several headings.
Scope of Application: Sickness insurance should cover
every person who performs work by way of his occupation
and under a contract of service or apprenticeship, without
discrimination as to age or sex. If it should be considered
desirable to fix age limits, outside of which workers are
already protected, such limits should not apply to young
persons who can not normally be considered as dependent
on their families or to workers who have not reached the old-
age pension age. Moreover, if exceptions are made for
workers whose earnings or incomes exceed a specified amount,
such exceptions should apply only to workers whose earnings
or incomes are such that they may reasonably be expected to
make their own provisions for sickness.
Cash Benefits: The statutory scale of benefits should or-
dinarily be fixed in relation to the normal wage and should
be a substantial proportion of such wage, with due regard
to family responsibilities. In countries where the workers
have adequate facilities of which they are accustomed to
take advantage to procure additional benefit by other means,
a uniform scale of benefit may be appropriate.
Statutory benefit should be paid for at least the first
twenty-six weeks of incapacity, but the period for which
benefit is payable should be increased to one year in case of
serious and chronic illness and for insured persons who will
not receive any invalidity benefit on the expiration of their
right to sickness benefit. Insurance institutions in sound
financial condition should be authorized to increase the
statutory scale of benefit or prolong the statutory period
during which benefit is payable.
In countries where burial expenses are not covered by
some other form of insurance. sickness insurance institutions
