Switzerland. Report on compulsory insurance against illness and working of mutual aid societies.
- Date:
- 1891
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Switzerland. Report on compulsory insurance against illness and working of mutual aid societies. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![these contributions proving insufficient the deficit was to be met out of the communal poor fund. By ^ way, moreover, of encouraging the erection of communal hospitals the State under- took to contribute a sum not exceeding 25 per cent, of the total cost of such a building in any commune whose resources fell short of the calls on its ])oor fund. By a special clause in this law medical relief is in no case to be continued to the same individual for the same illness for more than three months in one year. Although none of the other cantons have as yet succeeded in Propo-ala for carrying through any measure of compulsory insurance against illness, the question has for some years past engaged the attention j^to o^her of tlie legislative councils of Bale-Ville, Geneva, Aargau, and cantons. Zurich, in all of which cantons measures in various stages of advancement are under consideration. In the canton of Bale-Vilie the idea Avas first started in the Baie-Ville. year 1875, when the town was visited by a severe epidemic of typhus. Since that date various measures dealing with the subject have been discussed, and one was actually passed last year by the Cantonal Council, although, as has already been reported, it was subsequently rejected by the people on submission to the Kefe rendu m. A new Bill has since been prepared which, it is hoped, will meet with a better reception, as, profiting by past experience, it proftoses to utilise the machinery of the existing mutual aid societies, whose members led the opposition to the rejected law. A measure introduced in the Cantonal Council of Geneva in Geneva. 1887 has since been remodelled by its authors, and is awaiting the final decision of that assembly. Its main idea is to entrust the general hospital at Geneva with the task of organising, in conjunction witli the communes, a system of insurance against illness, obligatory on all citizens of the canton above 18 years of age, and optional for all other Swiss citizens domiciled in it. The Executive Committee of the Hospital is, it is proposed, to consi-st of 25 members to be selected by the various legislative and municipal authorities of tlie canton, and an annual subsidy not exceeding 6,000/. is to be granted from cantonal funds. In addition to medical treatment the system contemplates the grant of a daily allowance to those Avho are disabled by illness, except in cases where their insurance premiums are found to be in arrears owing to idleness or misconduct. Financial and other difficulties have hitherto stood in the way Airgau. of the realisation of a scheme which, when presented to the Cantonal Council of Aargau in 1888, met with the approval of the Government and of the majority of that assembly. According to its terms insurance was to be made compulsory for all classes of workmen, domestic servants, &c., by means of insurance societies to be created in the different communes. Mutual aid societies of over 100 members, in which the relief afforded came up to the required standard, might, on submission (1130)](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21979509_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
