Health insurance : its relation to the public health / by B.S. Warren, and Edgar Sydenstricker.

  • Warren, B. S. (Benjamin S.), 1871-1935.
Date:
1916
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health insurance : its relation to the public health / by B.S. Warren, and Edgar Sydenstricker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    78/84 (page 76)
    SECOMMENDATIONS AS TO HEALTH IHSURAHCE. [From the stafl report to the United States Commission on Industrial Relations^] It is suggested that the commission recommend a Federal system of sickness insurance, constructed along the lines here briefly sum¬ marized : 1. Membership: The membership shall comprise ail employees of persons, firms, companies, and corporations engaged in interstate commerce, or whose products are transported in interstate commerce, or which may do business in two or more States, The employees of intrastate establishments to be permitted to be insured, if they so elect, under regulations to be prescribed by the commission. 2. Fund: The fund is to be created by joint contributions by employees, employers, and the Government, the last named sufficient for expenses of administration. Such contributions should probably be in the proportion of 50 pei cent from workers, 40 per cent from employers, and 10 per cent from the Government. Individuals or groups desiring larger benefits may arrange to make larger payments, and the rate in any trade, industry, or locality may be reduced where conditions so improve as to make a lower rate adequate. The contributions are to be secured through taxing each inter¬ state employer a certain amount weekly for each employee, the part contributed by workers to be deducted from their wages, thus using the regular revenue machinery of the Government. 3. Benefits: Benefits to be available for a limited period in the form of cash and medical benefits during sickness, nonindustrial accidents and childbearing; death benefits to be of limited size and payable on presentation of proper evidence. 4. Administration: The administration of the insurance funds is to be carried out by a national sickness insurance commission. The national commission should be composed, by Presidential appointment with Senate confirmation, of a director (who would be chairman), representatives of employers and representatives of employees in equal ratio, and, as ex officio non voting members, the Federal Commissioner of Labor Statistics and the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service. The com¬ mission should be empowered to supervise all funds and determine their character and limits of jurisdiction; promulgate all regulations necessary to enforce the act; establish and maintain hospitals; maintain staffs of medical examiners, specialists, dentists, and visiting nurses; provide for medicines and appliances; make contracts with local physicians; cooperate with local funds and health authorities in disease prevention; and provide for collecting actuarial data. Correlation of the insurance system with the medical profession, the lack of which has been a serious defect in German and British systems, is absolutely necessary. Contracts with physicians should allow to each a per capita payment for the insured persons under his care, the right of selection of physician to be retained by the insured. For the signing of certificates entitling the insured to benefits and for treating the insured in hospitals the Surgeon General should detail physicians from the Public Health Service, their entire time to be given to these and other duties (consulting with local physicians, enforcing Federal laws and regulations, and cooperating with local authorities). 76 Final Report of the Commission on Industrial Relations, 1915, pp. 206-207. O