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 VII. The financial resources of health insurance scheme

Collection:: Economics Books

MAJORITY REPORT. QF 5 something approaching this amount; but a secondary effect of some consequence would be to throw into deficiency a number of Societies which at present have no surplus or only small surpluses, and are consequently unable to meet any additional strain on their resources. The Committee estimate that Societies com- prising about 10 per cent. of the whole insured community might be placed in this position and they recommend, accordingly, that any balances accruing to the Reserve Suspense Fund after 1926 should be utilised to give sufficient financial assistance to Societies of this class to enable them to maintain a condition of solvency 181. The Committee point out that their proposals do not in- volve any draft upon the accrued surpluses of Societies which, with the related Contingencies Funds, and apart from surplus in course of distribution under current schemes for additional benefits, must amount, they estimate, to something considerably in excess of £35 000.000 at 31st December, 1926. First CALL ON THE MARGIN. 182. The margin in the contribution which results from the Committee’s proposals amounts in all, with the related State grant, to about £4,500,000 a year. The first charge on this amount must, we think, be the balance of the cost of the present medical benefit, i.e., the excess over the sum of 9s. 6d. per insured person per annum for which provision is made in the Consolidation Act of 1924. Temporary provision for defraying this balance from various sources for three years was made by the Cost of Medical Benefit Act of 1924 (see paragraph 142, Section C of Appendix I to our Minutes of Evidence). But even were it desirable to continue to have recourse to similar expedients in future it would be impossible to rely on money being available from the same sources, more especially in view of the fact that the present temporary provision is likely to prove inadequate in England and Wales, and that the consequent deficiency must, in our opinion, be met by an increase of the temporary provision referred to. + On the official evidence before ‘us, the sum which it will be necessary to provide to cover the whole cost of the present medical benefit after 1926 will be 12s. 6d. per insured person per annum. We recommend that the whole of this sum should be provided in future from the funds of Approved Societies, as in the case of benefits in general. A problem of draftsmanship will no doubt arise in framing the statutory provision so as to meet the continuing difficulty in estimating the annual cost of drugs. In this connection reference may be made to the evidence of Mr. Brock and Dr. Smith Whitaker (Q. 23.993). APPLICATION OF BALANCE OF THE MARGIN. 188. If the above recommendation be adopted the margin of 7s. 0d. in the case of men, and 8s. 9d. in the case of women, will 54, 1 ITO0 D

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