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

178 MAJORITY REPORT. a list of allocations maintained lest a contributor should be allocated more than once—for some persons would refuse to recognise the allocation and would continue, for a time, at least, to send their cards to the Department. It will be understood that preliminary correspondence is often necessary before the position in insurance of persons surrendering cards, presumably as deposit contributors, can be determined. This is referred to in para- graph 99 of Section A of Appendix I to the Minutes of Hvidence. Some form of official ‘¢ Clearing House ©” would be inevitable. 406. No Society or other body has at any time put forward a practical scheme for allocating deposit contributors, and we are informed that, despite prolonged and careful examination, the Department has been unable, so far, to devise one which would give satisfaction to insured persons, to Approved Societies, or to those who would be required to administer it. Further, having regard to the consideration of the shortness of the average insur- ance life of deposit contributors, as such, it is doubtful whether, weighing the cost against the probable results, the adoption of an allocation system could be justified, even if a satisfactory practical scheme were forthcoming. In substance, there would be elaborate machinery for allocating insured persons, many of whom would, in any event, without the intervention of the Department. allocate themselves within a short space of time. 407. We have dealt above with the difficulties of allocation chiefly from the point of view of the Department. There is, how- ever, another aspect which must be examined. Approved Societies are bodies formed by voluntary effort and, as a rule, have close relations in each case with some particular form of social activity. Some, for instance, are Friendly Societies, several of which require special qualifications, e.g., total abstinence, for membership. Others are, or exist in connexion with, trade unions; yet others are connected with organisations engaged in industrial assurance; while a considerable number have been established for the employees of particular firms or commercial companies. The insured person who cannot find one Society to suit him among the diverse organisations which open their doors to him is doubtless hypercritical, but his susceptibilities are nevertheless so far to be respected that he ought not to be forced, by Departmental allocation, into any particular Society, regardless of his views upon the subject. The fact is that, if every insured person is to be compelled to be a member of some Society, a Society must be established by the State to receive those persons who object to taking up membership in any of the voluntary bodies, and who, if they were allotted against their will, could render the whole scheme of ‘insurance inoperative, so far as they were concerned, by declining to surrender the cards containing the evidence of the contributions which had been exacted from them. There are,

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