Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1740277147

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-132094

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stationery Office

Year of publication:: 1926

Scope:: XII, 394 S.

Digitisation:: 2020

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter VIII. The approved society system

Collection:: Economics Books

MAJORITY REPORT 118 the Society's State Insurance funds of the amount improperly expended, or, at any rate, in the hope of obtaining an adequate assurance from the Society that the improper expenditurs in question will not be allowed to recur. We were told in evidence by a witness representing the Ministry of Health (Kinnear, Q. 23,496), that under the present procedure it is possible to dispose satisfactorily of the great majority of instances of improper expenditure by Societies, but that cases occasionally arise in which a Society declines to deal with the matter in the manner which the Department thinks proper, or to give any assurance that the improper expenditure will not be repeated. We ques- tioned the Acting Chief Auditor of the National Insurance Audit Department as to the differentiation of treatment accorded to Approved Societies and Insurance Committees in the matter of improper expenditure, and he sought to justify this differentiation. He said : *“ When we disallow and surcharge in the case of Insur- ance Committees we have to allege negligence or misconduct on the part of the people who are being surcharged. When we consider how Approved Society expenditure is actually incurred we should find that the secretary of the group is normally a man wielding a fairly wide general executive power, in many cases merely having his action ratified at a later time. That would involve, I think, the almost inevitable surcharging of him in practically every case of improper Approved Society expendi- ture, and that would be an impossible position.’ (Middleton, Q. 23,265.) We cannot admit the logic of this distinction. The State Insurance Funds of Approved Societies are statutory funds held in trust by the Society for the benefit of its members, and may be used only in accordance with the provisions of the Act, and we feel that where funds of this character are in question the audit provisions are not complete unless they include the power of disallowance and surcharge. We were informed that it had only been necessary to apply this power to a very small number of disallowances in Insurance Committees’ accounts, and we anticipate that it will not be otherwise if the power is extended to cover Approved Societies. None the less, we feel that it will be an effective and necessary weapon, to be used in the few extreme cases which cannot be dealt with satis- factorily without it and that its existence in the armoury may even be beneficial apart from the use that may be made of it. 244. We, therefore, recommend that the auditors of the National Insurance Audit Department should be given the power of dis- allowance and surcharge in the case of improper expenditure by Approved Societies, and that, as in the case of Insurance Committees, this power should be accompanied by power to the Minister to remit any surcharge, or to recover any overpayment as he may think proper in the circumstances of any particular case

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