MAJORITY REPORT. 
by the workmen's wage, has in effect the same influence 1n 
reducing his standard of living as similar expenditure resulting 
from his own illness.”” The National Association of Trade Union 
Approved Societies (App. XCII, 100; Q. 22,052) suggest the 
inclusion of dependants in the extended medical benefit which 
they propose, and submit that *‘ in the average home medical 
attention and treatment is more often required by the mother 
and children than by the man. If, therefore, it is considered 
necessary to protect the worker against the cost of medical 
services for himself, it is more necessary to protect him against 
the heavier risk.” 
(JONSIDERATIONS OF POLICY. 
372. Our conclusion on this problem (irrespective of the 
financial considerations) may, we think, be inferred from certain 
parts of Chapter V, and here we need not go into any great 
detail. Briefly, we consider that medical provision for 
dependants should form an integral part of any scheme of general 
health services, administered by the Local Authorities. Whether 
a contribution to such provision is to be made from insurance 
funds or not, the fact remains that medical service for dependants 
is too large a problem to be considered apart from medical service 
for the whole working-class and, perhaps, middle-class population. 
If the dependants of the present insured population are brought 
into the system of medical benefit, the residue of the working- 
class population is relatively small, and that residue may 
be still further reduced by the proposals for dealing 
with the destitute poor which are now under the consideration 
of the Government. Further, one effect of including the 
dependants in the medical service of the present Insurance 
Scheme might be to impede or postpone any ultimate unification 
of health services. If this were so, we should all the more be in- 
clined to pronounce against medical benefit for dependants at 
the present time. We may quote Mr. Brock’s reply to Q. 23,847 
in this connexion : ‘If a complete medical service, short of 
institutional treatment, is going to be provided for insured people, 
of course, it must emphasise the anomaly that at present their 
wives and dependants can only obtain such medical treatment 
as they are able to pay for. But it does seem to be open to 
question whether the better way of providing for dependants 
1s through a system of insurance which must necessarily exclude 
a certain number of people . . . If it was proposed to 
provide either a general practitioner service or a complete 
medical service for the whole industrial population, there are 
strong arguments in favour of providing this service out of local 
funds and making it available to all sections of the popula- 
tion . . > Later he states: ‘‘ Extension of medical benefit 
to dependants would be less logical and probably less satisfactory 
than the establishment of a public medical service at the expense