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 XIII. Miscellaneous questions

Collection:: Economics Books

MAJORITY REPORT. 197 an insured person’s title to benefit by reference to his financial position retrospectively, and it hardly requires to be pointed out that the adoption of such a solution might have the effect, and indeed would not infrequently have the effect, of granting an insured person medical benefit while his earnings were high, and withdrawing it in the subsequent period when his earnings might be reduced. This result would curiously defeat the whole purpose of the suggestion. Apart from such administrative difficulties we feel, moreover, that it would be a retrograde step to exclude from the Insurance Scheme, or even from the title to medical benefit under the Act, any section of the community which hag hitherto been included and which has generally, so far as we have been able to gather, become not merely accustomed to insurance but appreciative of the benefits which it provides. 460. In the case of non-manual workers, the limit for insurability was raised in 1919 from £160 to £250 a year owing to the change in economic conditions. We are informed that the operation of the limit offers no more administrative difficultly than is to be expected (Kinnear (). 36; Leishman Q. 1551). Our attention has been called to the fact that the income limit for non-manual workers has recently been increased in the Workmen's Compensation Act to £350, and a few witnesses have suggested that the income limit for non-manual workers should be similarly raised for National Insurance (Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds, App. XLIV, 16; Q. 14,076-14,085; National Association of Trade Union Approved Societies, App. XCII, 55-59; Q. 21,855-21,856). But in regard to this point there has always (except for a short period pending the amend- ment of the Workmen’s Compensation Act) been a difference between the two systems, the original limits having been respectively £160 and £250. We doubt whether such an extension would be welcomed by those primarily affected, and in any case we are of the opinion that any proposal to bring National Health Insurance into line in this respect with Work- men’s Compensation would meet with strong opposition both from employers and from the Medical Profession. In the Circumstances, the position should, we think, remain unaltered. 461. It was suggested to us by the British Medical Association that persons such as bank clerks, insurance officials, and others Who normally pass beyond the income limit of insurability at a Comparatively early age, should be excepted altogether from Health Insurance (App. XLVII, 15; Q. 14,877-14,890; 14,914- 14,926). No claim was, however, made to us by, or in the name of, these particular classes of insured persons for their exception from the Scheme. On the contrary, we had some evidence that the Protection provided by the Health Insurance system is be- “oming increasingly valued by persons of this class, and in par- ticular that they desire to participate in the valuable additional

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