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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![to Government control, acquire the same status as the compulsory insurance associations. It was proposed that the weekly premium should be fixed at 2d. for those under 16 years of age and at 3d. for adults, and that employers of labour should be required to contribute Id. a week for all in their employ. For all cases not received into a hospital free medical treatment Avas to be provided, while after the third day's illness a daily allowance was to be granted, amounting to 5d. for those under 16, and to lOd. for adults and for women during a period of four weeks after a confinement. When a member of one of these associations was unable through absence in some other locality to avail himself of the privileges to which he was entitled in case of illness, a daily allowance of Is. Sd. was to be made to him. Thirteen weeks was fixed as the limit of time for receipt of relief by the same individual, while any deficit in the accounts of these societies was to be made good by the particular commune interested and by the State conjointly. Zfirich. canton of Zurich various jjlans of com])ulsory insurance have been mooted in the course of the last few years. At one time indeed an idea was started that the object aimed at might be attained by instituting a system of general medical relief to be administered by the hospitals, doctors, chemists, &c., under State supervision, but no practical step seems ever to have been taken for carrying it into effect. In 1889, however, a Bill was presented to the Cantonal Council for the compulsory insurance of workmen and domestic servants above the age of 18 years by means of special insurance societies to be created in the communes, which were to be worked in connection with the existing mutual aid societies on the principle of free circulation (freiziigigkcit) between all the different associations—members of one being thus enabled on changing their domicile to pass into another society and to acquire the full rights of membership. All mutual aid societies entering into this combination were to offer tlie same advantages to their members as the compulsory associations, while their financial administration and medical arrangements were to be subject to the control of the communal authorities. Subventions, varying in amount according to the necessities of each particular case, were to be granted equally to both classes of these societies. The Bill lays down various rules respecting the nature of the relief to be afforded, fixes the daily sick pay at 10c?. after the third day^s illness, but limits the total amount to be received by the same individual in the course of the year to 4,1., or to half this amount if his case is treated in a hospital. As regards the payment of the monthly premium of 10(/., it proposes that in the case of domestic servants half should be paid by the master, but that in the case of workmen the whole amount should be paid by the employer, subject to the right on the part of the latter to recoup himself by deducting from the workmen's wages a sum not exceeding 2 per cent, of the total amount. The Bill would, moreover, guard against all attempts at](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21979509_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
