Switzerland. Report on compulsory insurance against illness and working of mutual aid societies.

Date:
1891
Catalogue details

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.

    14/18 (page 10)
    SWI'i ZEULAND. EflFecl of a measure of national insurance on the position of the voluntary societies. The committees apjioint paid officers to inquire into all cases of sickness and to dii^tribute n lief. A general meeting of the society, attended by one delegate for every 50 members of the local brandies, is held once a year to elect the central committee, to frame or revise the statutes of the society, to pass accounts, to vote any si.iecial form of relief, and to settle all questions which may arise between the central and dis- trict committees. The central committee is entrusted with the general adminis- trative work of the society. It appoints a central accountant and a central agent, whose duty it is to correspond with the district committees and to examine and check their accounts. The society cannot be dissolved so long as it counts 100 mem- bers, and in the event of dissolution its fortune is to be handed over to some charitable institution. Finally, as regards the question of the effect which the adoption of a measure of compulsory insurance is likely to have on the position of the voluntary societies, we may quote the vie ws expressed by a member of the* Council of States, M. Gottisheim, in an interesting report on the subject of compulsory insurance, which he has recently addressed to the Federal Government. Referring to the fact that the number of days' illness resulting from accidents amounted during the 12 months ended March 31, 1889, to 19,521, he maintains that any measure of compulsory insurance against accidents must also make provision for insurance against illness. As, however, the former branch of insurance recognises the claim of theinjured workman,notonly topropermedi- cal treatment, but also to an indemnity for the pecuniary loss entailed on him by the accident, the same principle must likewise be extended to disablement by sickness if the two forms of insurance are to be worked together. The State, however, cannot limit its action to the mere grant of sick pay, as is at present done by the majority of the mutual aid societies, but must rather concentrate its energies on securing proper medical treatment in every case of illness, so that recovery of health may be as rapid, and the duration of the period of incapacity to work as short as possible. What, therefore, strikes M. Gottisheim as the most desirable solution of the question of the ultimate relations between the State and the voluntary societies is, that the former should confine itself to providing medical treatment, while the latter should devote their resources to furnishing pecuniary compensation for the loss occasioned by illness. Relieved by the State of the expenses of the medical treatment the societies would be in a far better position to furnish the sick pay to their members, while the members themselves would further benefit by the lower scale of the State premiums, more especially as a portion of these would in all probability have to be borne by the employers- There are unfortunately, as he admits, several obstacles in the way of the carrying out of such an arrangement.