Hospital Contributory Schemes (memorandum)
1942-07-20 1942 1940s 5 pages -3- Contributions versus Insurance Premiums In the course of time contributors under these schemes have come to regard their contributions as an insurance against the possibility of their need for hospital treatment Having paid their contributions they consider they a...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
20 July 1942
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/3F542F6F-C2B3-42B6-A14F-44A6945BD53A http://hdl.handle.net/10796/C41D1340-7D06-42A5-8B35-83081F0FA7A0 |
| _version_ | 1771659906933325824 |
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| description | 1942-07-20
1942
1940s
5 pages
-3- Contributions versus Insurance Premiums In the course of time contributors under these schemes have come to regard their contributions as an insurance against the possibility of their need for hospital treatment Having paid their contributions they consider they are entitled to free admission to hospital should the need arise and they are encouraged in this view by such forms as that in use at Messrs. Spillers Ltd., and quoted above. It is interesting to note, however, what the British Hospitals Contributory Schemes Association has to say on the point. In a recently issued handbook the following Points of Policy are among those set dawn for the guidance of Contributory Schemes generally. 1. A Voluntary Hospital Contributory Scheme "is not an Insurance Scheme, but is a Voluntary Organisation under responsible management set up in co-operation with the Voluntary Hospital (or Hospitals) for the purpose of assisting in the maintenance of Voluntary Hospitals by collecting a regular contribution on a definite scale, primarily from wage earners and their employers". 14. "Membership of a Contributory Scheme cannot give any right to contributors to admission to any hospital nor any priority right in regard to order of admission. Questions of admission and the order of admission are medical questions outside the scope of a Contributor Scheme. (These are entirely questions for the decision by the Hospital Authorities). The privileges of the Scheme in regard to Hospitals commence to operate after the patient has been admitted to hospital for treatment and should be limited to securing for the contributor immunity from any payment towards the cost of maintenance in hospital". The assumption that hospital contributions necessarily represent insurance premiums against a possible need for hospital treatment is undoubtedly the root cause of present disappointments. It gives the contributor a false sense of security which is rudely shaken when the day of need arises. If the true position were more widely appreciated the demand for a unified hospital system, with adequate reciprocal arrangements for the transfer of patients not only from one voluntary hospital to another but from voluntary to municipal hospitals and vice-versa, would become still more insistent than it is now Hospital Savings Association An intersting [interesting] attempt at the organisation of a hospital insurance scheme is represented in the Hospital Saving Association the objects of which are "to enable men and women in receipt of regular wages or income to save for the hospitals while in health and to pool their savings so that they may collectively reimburse the hospitals for services rendered to individuals among them and be relieved from expense when they can least afford it". The Association was formed in 1923 and its annual income from contributions of 3d per week has grown from £2,176 in that year to £1,079,433 in 1940, the latter figure being more than double that of any other Contributory Scheme in the country. Contributors and their dependants are covered in respect of hospital treatment in over 500 Voluntary and Municipal Hospitals. The Hospital Saving Association does not operate west of Chepstow as Welsh Voluntary Hospitals decided unanimously not to accept the vouchers in payment for services rendered to H.S.A. Contributors in need of treatment while in Wales. The Future It is not the purpose of this memorandum to speculate on the future development of Hospital Contributory Schemes, but the following points are of interest. /Speaking
292/842/2/172-173 |
| geographic | UK |
| id | HEA-249_2b7405cbe2c04683a198c0eb8bc316df |
| institution | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| is_hierarchy_title | Hospital Contributory Schemes (memorandum) |
| language | English English |
| physical | TEXT |
| publishDate | 20 July 1942 |
| spellingShingle | Trades Union Congress Hospitals, 1936-1959 Health care Health insurance--Great Britain--History ; Hospitals--Great Britain Hospital Contributory Schemes (memorandum) |
| title | Hospital Contributory Schemes (memorandum) |
| topic | Trades Union Congress Hospitals, 1936-1959 Health care Health insurance--Great Britain--History ; Hospitals--Great Britain |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/3F542F6F-C2B3-42B6-A14F-44A6945BD53A http://hdl.handle.net/10796/C41D1340-7D06-42A5-8B35-83081F0FA7A0 |