Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance

Bibliographic data

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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

2340 APPENDIX A. relation of the sickness claims of women to the standard shows an almost continuous increase. So far as disablement benefit is concerned, the experience agrees with that of men in showing the same feature of con- tinuous growth, the claims, relatively to the standard, in the year 1924, having been almost exactly double those of the year 1919. But the number of women who remain in insurance much beyond the age of 30 is, relatively, so small that we are precluded from thinking that much of the increase can be accounted for by the cause which we have suggested in para. 15 to be operating in the case of men. A substantial part of the increase of the women’s disablement claims must, we think, be asso- ciated with the increase in the corresponding claims for sickness benefit and be attributable to the same cause—whatever that cause may be. 19. The Selected Societies Experience in regard to women is given in Tables A (8. & W.) and B (S. & W.), which relate respectively to the sickness and disablement claims of gpinsters and widows, and in Tables A (M.W.) and B (M.W.), which contain the corresponding data in respect of married women. In regard to sickness benefit a conspicuous feature brought out by these tables is the heavy pressure of the claims of married women. Something of the kind was indeed to have been expected, but the relative amount of the sickness benefit claimed by the married as compared with the unmarried is arresting. An even more disquieting fact is that the relative excess among the married women is growing. Taking, for instance, the important group of ages 25 to 30 the married women’s rate of sickness was, in 1921, 1°74 times the unmarried women’s rate; in 1922 it was 1:98 times and in 1928, 2:42 times the unmarried women’s rate. In respect of disablement benefit the claims of both unmarried and married women have been, very heavy (relatively to the standard) at the younger ages, but the relation of the claims of the married to those of the unmarried has varied in a most singular manner, having been favourable at ages between 25 and 45 and unfavourable over 45. These phenomena appear to us to require administrative consideration; their causes are far from clear to us and the prospect of their persistence seriously complicates the problem referred to us. We are required, in fact, to find the proper contribution for the sickness and disablement claims of women at a time when (a) the sickness claims of unmarried women at the ages of chief importance are about 40 per cent. higher than the corresponding claims of men and the disparity is increasing; (b) the sickness claims of married women are double the corresponding claims of unmarried women, and the disparity is also increasing; and (¢) the disablement claims of both unmarried and married women are double the corresponding claims of men. 20. It is clear that in these circumstances we cannot come to any final decision. The utmost we can do is to recommend for the time being a basis which primd facie appears to make an adequate provision, relying on (a) further actuarial enquiry as to its suitability after the lapse of a few years, and (b) in the meantime, an effective administrative investiga- tion of the features to which attention has been directed, with the appli- cation of such remedial measures as suggest themselves. In the absence of any authoritative standard of women’s sickness experience the basis which we propose should be adopted is that provided by the Selected Societies Hxperience of women’s sickness and disablement claims in the year 1923 with an addition of 10 per cent. But for the experience of the year 1924, as indicated in para. 13, we should have been inclined to think that the experience of the year 1923 provided as high a standard of the future claims as ought to be necessary. In the circumstances we are constrained to add a loading to the 1923 rates which we fix at the moderate figure of 10 per cent. in view of the fact that certain small margins arise in the operation of the system of transfer values.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation