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 XII. Consideration of certain major problems

Collection:: Economics Books

MAJORITY REPORT. 155 TCA only of the cost, but of the scope and administrative arrangements of such a service. CoST OF A STATUTORY DENTAL BENEFIT. 350. The cost of providing a dental service for all insured per- sons cannot we are told be determined with any precision because of the impossibility of estimating accurately the number of persons who might apply for treatment. It is generally agreed that the dental condition of the industrial classes is deplorable. The proportion of insured persons needing some form of dental treatment is put at from 60 per cent. to 80 per cent. of the total. The precise figure, however, is not material, even if it were exactly ascertainable, since the important point in framing any estimate is not the number of persons who need treatment, but the number who would be likely to seek it. This must be a matter of conjecture, but it is material to note that the demands on Approved Societies which have provided dental treatment as an additional benefit have shown a marked and continuous in- crease. With an unrestricted dental service, open to all insured persons without any contribution being réquired from patients, it would, we are told, not be safe to calculate on less than 5 per cent. of the total insured population applying for treatment in a year. We understand that the percentage of members eligible for the existing Dental Benefit who apply for treatment is about 4 per cent., but allowance must be made for those who are deterred from applying by the knowledge that they will have to bear part of the cost. In the case of the United Women’s Insurance Society the proportion of applicants has been as high as 9 per cent., a figure which is significant in view of the long experience of this Society in the provision of dental treatment. (App. XXIV, 22-51) _ 351. The other item in estimating the cost of a dental service 18 the cost per case treated. It is clear that the majority of persons now applying for treatment need dentures, and until the present arrears have been worked off, which would take some years, the proportion of denture cases is bound to be very large. The inevitable result is that the cost per case treated is high. In the initial period it would not be safe to estimate the average Cost per case at less than £4, and it might prove to be nearer £5, on the basis of the present scale of the Public Dental Service Association. Tt is possible, though by no means certain, that Some saving might be effected by the adoption of a system of femuneration based upon the time given to the work in preference to one based on a scale of fees for services rendered. _ 352. Accepting for the moment the estimate of 5 per cent. of Msured persons applying for treatment in each year at an average Cost of £4 per case, estimates which are probably on the low 54709

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