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

166 MAJORITY REPORT. the account of the Administration of Medical Benefit given in Section C of Appendix I submitted by the Ministry of Health. There will be found a full official account of the successful administration during 13 years of a very complicated system— and part at least of that success must be attributed to the local administrative bodies. The British Medical Association, repre- senting the bulk of the doctors who are in contract with the Committees and in daily touch with their officials through the administration of medical benefit, make no adverse criticism of their performance and many Societies express themselves as thoroughly satisfied with this part of the machinery. Two REASONS FOR ABOLITION. 375. Tf, then, medical benefit has been a success, and if the Insurance Committees have been responsible for its local ad- ministration, the question may well be asked, Why abolish these bodies? To this we shall attempt to give a two-fold answer. In the first place unification of local effort on health services is, as we have indicated in Chapter V, a consideration that should, in our view, be paramount whatever the success of the isolated pieces of machinery which now exist. In the second place the evidence we have heard convinces us that whatever may have been the position at the outset and whatever the aims of the framers of the Act, in real fact these Committees have not now sufficiently extensive or sufficiently important duties to justify their existence as independent administrative bodies. In 1912, when the Scheme was launched, much may have been gained from the impetus and interest which might be expected from specially constituted bodies. But that stage is long past. The duties are now of a routine character and could equally well be performed by the same officials working under the control of the Tiocal Authority. 376. To the first of these considerations—the need for unifica- tion—we need not here devote any space as the principle has been fully discussed in Chapter V, and does indeed, we believe, command general acceptance. We therefore immediately turn to the second consideration and inquire what, in fact, is the present work of an Insurance Committee and what are the views as to the future of these bodies placed before us by critical wit- nesses. For a full description of the powers and duties of Insur- ance Committees we may refer to the Ministry of Health statement (Section C of Appendix I), to the evidence of the Federation of Insurance Committees (App. XXXVI) and of the Scottish and Welsh Associations of Insurance Committees (Apps. XXXVIT and XXXVIIT respectively). These are descriptions of the general system. For a picture in closer perspective of the routine work of, on the one hand, an urban Committee. on the other of a county Committee, we would refer to the statements supplied by the Tondon Insurance Committee (App. XCVIIT)

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