National Health Insurance Act 1918
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1918 c. 62 |
| Year | 1918 |
National Health Insurance Act, 1918
(7 & 8 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 62.
An Act to amend the Acts relating to National Health Insurance.
[6th February 1918]
B E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Part I.
Financial Provisions.
1 Amendment of s. 55 \(3) of principal Act.
(1) The sum to be retained by the Insurance Commissioners under subsection (3) of section fifty-five of the National Insurance Act, 1911 (in this Act referred to as ‘the principal Act’), out of each weekly contribution shall, in the case of an insured person being a woman, be one penny and one-sixth instead of one penny halfpenny.
(2) The sums retained by the Insurance Commissioners under the said subsection shall, instead of being wholly applied towards discharging the liabilities of the Insurance Commissioners to approved societies in respect of reserve values, be applied in carrying to the Contingencies Fund and the Central Fund hereinafter constituted, amounts calculated in accordance with the provisions of the First Schedule to this Act, and the balance only shall be applied in discharging such liabilities as aforesaid and apportioned amongst societies in manner provided by subsection (4) of the said section:
Provided that if at any time it appears to the National Health Insurance Joint Committee that, after taking into account the necessity of creating a proper reserve, the sums standing to the credit of the Central Fund are more than sufficient for the purposes for which that fund is established, the Committee may by regulations provide for decreasing the amounts to be carried to that fund and making a corresponding increase in the amounts to be carried to the Contingencies Fund.
2 Women's Equalisation Fund.
(1) There shall be established under the control of the National Health Insurance Joint Committee a fund to be called the Women's Equalisation Fund and to be applied in assisting approved societies in meeting their liabilities in respect of the sickness claims of women.
(2) There shall in each year be charged on the Women's Equalisation Fund and distributed among approved societies in manner provided by a scheme to be made by the National Health Insurance Joint Committee, with the approval of the Treasury, such sum, not exceeding eight shillings in respect of each of the total number (calculated in the prescribed manner) of married women who are members of approved societies and who are employed contributors, as may be ascertained in accordance with the said scheme.
(3) Subject as hereinafter provided, there shall in respect of each year be carried to the Women's Equalisation Fund out of moneys provided by Parliament such sum as will suffice to meet the charges thereon:
Provided that the sum to be carried to the Fund in respect of each of the years nineteen hundred and thirteen, nineteen hundred and fourteen, nineteen hundred and fifteen, and nineteen hundred and sixteen, shall, instead of being provided as aforesaid, be provided out of the moneys voted by Parliament before the commencement of this Act in aid of the provision of sickness benefit for women, and in so far as the moneys so voted are insufficient to meet the aggregate charges on the fund in respect of those four years shall be provided out of the moneys applicable towards discharging the liabilities of the Insurance Commissioners to approved societies in respect of reserve values.
(4) All sums distributed among societies under this section shall be available for the payment of benefits, and shall, for the purposes of section three of the principal Act, be deemed to have been derived from contributions made in respect of contributors notwithstanding thai they are derived in whole or in part from moneys provided by Parliament.
3 Contingencies Funds and valuation.
(1) The Insurance Commissioners shall periodically apportion amongst the several societies the sums by this Act directed to be carried to the Contingencies Fund in the case of men in proportion to the number of contributions credited in respect of the members of those societies respectively who are men, and the sums by this Act directed to be carried to the Contingencies Fund in the case of women in proportion to the number of contributions credited in respect of the members of those societies respectively who are women, and the sums so apportioned to any society shall, with the proper proportion of the accumulations of interest on the amount from time to time standing to the credit of the fund, form the contingencies fund of the society, and be available for making good any deficiency of the society or of the branches thereof in manner hereinafter appearing, and no part of any surplus of any society or branch disclosed on a valuation shall be applied towards making good any deficiency in any other society or branch.
(2) If on the valuation of a society without branches a deficiency is disclosed, the sums standing to the credit of the contingencies fund of the society shall be applied towards making good the deficiency; and if no deficiency is so disclosed, or if the sums standing to the credit of the contingencies fund are more than sufficient to make good that deficiency, the sums standing to the credit of that fund or the balance thereof shall, subject to the provisions of this section with respect to small societies, be carried to the benefit fund of the society, but any amount so carried shall not be treated for the purposes of section thirty-seven of the principal Act as forming part of any surplus found at that valuation.
In this section the expression ‘benefit fund’ means the fund out of which benefits payable by the society or branch are provided.
(3) If on the valuation of any society with branches a deficiency is disclosed in the case of any one or more branches of the society, the central authority of the society shall apply the sums standing to the credit of the contingencies fund of the society towards making good those deficiencies, except that, if satisfied that any part of a deficiency is due to any maladministration by the branch in question, the central authority may, with the consent of the Insurance Commissioners, refuse so to make good at all or in part that part of the deficiency.
If there are no deficiencies, or if the sums standing to the credit of the contingencies fund are more than sufficient to provide for the total amount of the deficiencies made good under the foregoing provision, the fund or the balance of the fund shall, subject to the provisions of this section relating to small societies, be apportioned amongst the several branches in proportion to the amounts paid into the fund in respect of contributions of members of those branches respectively since the commencement of the principal Act, or since the last valuation, as the case may be, but where there was a deficiency in the case of any branch the amount so paid into the fund in respect of contributions of members of that branch shall for the purpose of this provision be deemed to be reduced by the amount (if any) applied towards making good the deficiency.
The amount so apportioned to any branch shall be applied and dealt with as follows:—
(a ) If there was a deficiency in the case of the branch and any part thereof was not discharged out of the contingencies fund of the society as being due to maladministration, the amount shall be applied towards making good that deficiency;
(b ) Subject as aforesaid the amount shall be carried to the benefit fund of the branch, but any amount so carried shall not be treated for the purposes of section thirty-seven of the principal Act as forming part of any surplus found at that valuation.
(4) Regulations of the National Health Insurance Joint Committee shall provide, in the case of societies which at the date as at which a valuation is made have not joined an association formed or recognised under this section and have less than one thousand members, for applying pro rata to such extent, not exceeding one half, as may be necessary, any balances of the contingencies funds of those societies not required for making good deficiencies in those societies under the foregoing provisions of this section towards making good pro rata the balances of the deficiencies remaining in the case of other such societies after the application of the contingencies funds of those societies in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section, subject, nevertheless, to the power of the Insurance Commissioners to refuse to allow to be made good either at all or in part any part of any deficiency which in their opinion is due to maladministration:
Provided that the Insurance Commissioners shall exempt from this subsection any society consisting of persons entitled to rights in a superannuation or other provident fund established for the benefit of persons employed by one or more employers, if the employer in addition to the contributions payable by him under Part I. of the principal Act is responsible for the solvency of the fund or for the benefits payable thereout, or is liable to pay a substantial part of, or to make substantial contributions to, or substantially to supplement the benefits payable out of the fund, and this subsection shall not apply to any society so exempted.
(5) The Insurance Commissioners may make regulations providing for the formation within the prescribed time for the purposes of this section of associations with central financial committees, and prescribing the conditions on which, and the time within which, a society shall be entitled or allowed to join, or having joined to secede from, an association, and the manner in which, and the...
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