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. 3 —E EE We have no indication that employers have objected to the arrangement under which they pay the contribution, and although we do not think there is very much substance in the argument that an employer would give preference to persons with private incomes if he had not to pay a contribution, the system provides a useful answer to such a criticism. We do not think that exempt persons should be deprived of medical benefit which they have enjoyed for 11 years. To do so would be deliberately to go back on the provisions of the 1913 Act, and we share the view of the Ministry of Health that any removal of medical benefit from those who have enjoyed it would be a retrograde step. 533. We suggest one small amendment in the system. Aft present, where the total income of an exempt person, from all sources, exceeds £160 a year, he is required to make his own arrangements for receiving medical treatment and attendance. This was the income limit in the 1918 Act, and it was not raised in 1918 to meet the depreciation in the purchasing power of money when all the other figures were raised by, approxi- mately, 50 per cent. We understand that this was due to the feeling of the medical profession at the time that there should be as little extension of contract practice as possible. We think, however, that in view of the limits otherwise provided in the system, this limit should now be raised to £250 per annum. MEN SERVING IN THE FORCES OF THE CROWN. 534. Men serving in the Armed Forces of the Crown are required to be insured under the National Health Insurance Act, but, inasmuch as their service pay continues during illness and full medical attendance is provided by the Service Authori- ties, the only insurance benefit to which they are entitled is maternity benefit. The contribution payable is 34d. a week, the whole of which is paid by the Service Departments. This contribution, in addition to covering the cost of maternity benefit, provides the funds required to enable the men on dis- charge from the Forces to continue in full insurance as civilians. No contribution cards are used during service, but the contribu- tions are paid in bulk by the Service Departments to the National Health Insurance Fund and are credited to the appropriate Approved Societies on the basis of a record, obtained from each man on his enlistment, of the Approved Society of which he is a member. 535. Tt was stated in evidence given on behalf of the Ministry of Health that this system gives rise to some administrative inconvenience, owing to the difficulty of obtaining from a man on his enlistment correct particulars of his Approved Society (Kinnear, Q. 373). Many men are found on discharge to have been members of Societies, although on enlistment they stated

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