MAJORITY REPOR', 
an Appendix on pp. 330-383. With reference to the first and 
principal of these Reports it will be observed that the Committee 
was asked to advise ‘‘ as to whether the present basic con- 
tribution under the National Health Insurance Acts is, in fact, 
required for the existing benefits (including the cost of Societies’ 
and Insurance Committees’ administration) or whether such a 
re-arrangement of the financial basis of the scheme would be 
justified as would reduce the amount allocated to the present 
benefits and leave a margin for other purposes.”’ 
173. The Report of the Committee shows that they have 
systematically analysed every element which enters into the 
financial basis of the system. It is unnecessary for us to traverse 
the whole field of their deliberations and we content ourselves, 
in this connexion, with a reference to two of the most important 
points with which they had to deal, namely the rate of interest 
at which the funds of the Approved Societies may be assumed 
to fructify hereafter by investment, and the rates of sickness and 
disablement to which the individual insured persons should be 
taken to be subject (on the average) as they pass from age 
to age. 
174. On the first of these points the Committee bring out the 
fact that on actual securities (including securities representing 
the moneys in the National Health Insurance Investment 
Account which are held by the National Debt Commissioners) 
the average rate of interest at present yielded is between 43 and 
5 per cent. These securities represent about 55 per cent. of 
the interest-bearing assets, the remainder being accounted for 
by reserve values, which, under the plan described above, carry, 
by statute, the rate of 3 per cent. The average rate obtained in 
recent years has thus been something under 4 per cent. The 
Committee go on to explain, however, that the real funds are 
continuously increasing in amount while opportunities of 
investing the increments at high rates of interest remain, and 
for a long period are likely to remain, abundant ; and that on the 
other hand the low-yielding reserve values have been heavily 
diminished by the provisions of the Widows’, Orphans’ and 
Old Age Contributory Pensions Act of 1925, and will be 
reduced still further by other changes, resulting partly 
from the Committee’s proposals and partly from the cancellation 
or redemption of several millions of these credits in the 
application of the regulations as to balances in the Reserve 
Suspense Fund. They have, therefore, satisfied themselves that 
the average rate of interest obtained will immediately rise above 
4 per cent. and they expect it to remain at or about that figure 
for the next 30 years, after which an opportunity for recon- 
sideration of the rate will, in any case, present itself. They 
accordingly propose that in the new financial basis of the system 
the rate of interest taken shall be 4 per cent. per annum instead