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 V. The development of the health services

Collection:: Economics Books

fn id JC MAJORITY REPORT. CHAPTER VV THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HEALTH SERVICES. 55. We propose to devote this chapter to a consideration of the medical aspects of the Health Insurance Scheme in their relation to the various other health services organised or supported by the State which we have described in the preceding chapter. For this purpose we have felt justified in assuming that the various health services of a public character will con- tinue to expand both in their scope and in the range of persons to whom they apply; and that while the limitations of finance to which we refer in Chapter VI may prevent development in the near future, yet, as time passes, these may become less restrictive. It also appears to us that we may accept as a principle which should govern any such developments, the desirability of bringing into closer relationship the various services directed towards the prevention of sickness and the improvement of health, and that the organisation of the services should Le such as to facilitate those developments which from time to time may become possible. 56. Medical benefit has been in operation for 13 years; of the other branches of medical service some preceded, others followed its introduction. In all these activities we have found, speaking broadly and with full consciousness of its limitations, such a contribution to the health and well-being of the community that we feel sure that a steady expansion in these services will mark our future social history. We will first devote some space to a consideration of what medical benefit is and what its practical results have been, as from the point of view of our reference that benefit must occupy the central position in a survey of the health services. SECTION A.—MEDICAL BENEFIT. ScoPE OF MEDICAL BENEFIT. 57. Medical benefit is defined under Section 10 of the 1924 Act as ‘‘ medical treatment and attendance,” which ‘‘ includes the provision of proper and sufficient medicines and of the prescribed medical and surgical appliances, but does not include treatment or attendance in respect of a confinement.” 58. So far as the supply of drugs is concerned, there is, subject to a safeguarding provision directed against extravagant prescribing, no limit in nature or cost to what the doctor may in his discretion prescribe. But as to the service he gives, the scope of the benefit has in practice been limited to such treatment as may reasonably be regarded as within the competence of

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