Administrative Aspects of Social Insurance: National Health Insurance
| Author | J. G. Bell |
| Date | 01 October 1927 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1927.tb02301.x |
| Published date | 01 October 1927 |
Administrative Aspects
of
Social
Insurance
National
Health
Insurance
By
J.
G.
BELL
Insurance
Department,
Ministrv
of
Health
OCIAL insurance organized
by
the State is in this country a product
s
of
the present century. The Royal Commission on the Poor Laws
and Relief of Distress,
Igoj-9,
pointed the way towards schemes for
protecting the workers against the hazards of industrial life arising from
loss
of earning capacity from various causes, including sickness. This
paper is concerned with the system of National Health Insurance insti-
tuted
in
1912
under the National Insurance Act,
1911.
With that system
is
now linked the contributory scheme of pensions to widows and orphans
and old age pensions under the Act of
1925,
but this latter scheme is of too
recent growth for
a
review of its administration to be yet opportune.
The first Health Insurance Act has been followed, almost annually, by
amending statutes
of
varying degrees of importance, but the original
structure has not been altered
in
its main outline.
The system
of
National Health Insurance operates throughout Great
Britain and Northern Ireland, and covers over
15,000,000
insured persons.
Tlie
funds for providing benefits are derived from contributions paid by
the
insured and their employers, while the State, as general guardian of the
scheme, pays
a
proportion of the cost
of
the benefits and
of
their adminis-
tration. Payment of contributions is compulsory on the workers covered
and on their employers. The magnitude of the scheme
will
be appreci-
ated from the fact that some
27
million pounds annually are collected
in
contributions and rather over this
sum
is
now disbursed
in
benefits.
The State contributes upwards
of
k.5
millions
a
year. Accumulated
funds
to meet future liabilities amount to some
&120
millions. The object
of the scheme, as given
in
the preamble to the
19x1
Act, is
"
to provide for
insurance against loss of health and for the prevention and cure
of
sick-
ness." The primary purpose is to prevent destitution when
loss
of wages
occurs through sickness, but from the commencement
it
has also been an
object to avoid the conditions making for the need for such assistance.
344
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