The British National Insurance Act of 1911 and the Commercial Insurance Lobby

Abstract

By any measure, the National Insurance Act of 1911 ranks among the major legislative achievements of the Liberal administration that held office in Great Britain before World War I. One section of the act founded the world's first national system of compulsory unemployment insurance. Another section brought government-sponsored health insurance to five sixths of the families of the nation and established the precedent of state concern for the physical welfare of the individual citizen, of which the National Health Service Act of 1946 would be only an extension. By requiring beneficiary contributions toward welfare programs, the act settled the financial pattern for most of Britain's present social legislation. In a less crowded period, the National Insurance Act would rank as an imposing parliamentary monument, comparable, for instance, to the Education Act of 1902. Sandwiched between the Parliament Act and the Home Rule Act, it has been lost from sight. The measure is not mentioned in the standard biography either of Asquith or of Balfour. It earns one sentence in G. M. Trevelyan's History of England in the Nineteenth Century, where through successive editions and revisions it is called “the National Health Insurance Act of 1912.” R. C. K. Ensor's England, 1870-1914 gives it a couple of paragraphs.This study is an examination of an important, perhaps crucial, aspect of the evolution of the health insurance section of the National Insurance Act that has remained unnoticed for half a century: the lobby activity of the British commercial insurance industry by which the companies modified health insurance proposals for their own benefit.

The Health Cure: Historical Experience of Old Democracy and Lessons for Russia

“…Важную роль сыграли и лоббистские усилия сообщества врачей, недовольных «диктатом» организованных потребителей из некоммерческих страховых организаций рабочих [Green, 1993. P. 81] и отчасти коммерческих страховщиков [Gilbert, 1965].…”

Disability, Health and Retirement in the United Kingdom

“…The system introduced after World War II is also largely the heir of the general sickness insurance introduced by the National Insurance Act 1911. It provided sickness benefi ts payable for twenty-six weeks along with a disability benefi t and some health care benefi t. All these benefi ts were distributed through approved Friendly Societies, but the scheme largely paved the way for further state interventions (see chapter 2 of Creedy and Disney [1985], and Gilbert [1965]). cording to duration of incapacity, while table 1.2 summarizes the changes to the generosity of these sickness and disability schemes.…”

Disability, health and retirement in the United Kingdom

“…The number of claimants increased slowly until the mid-1980s for the older working age individuals, when a sharp increase of IVB recipients was registered for all age groups. One can see in Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2 the number of IVB approved Friendly Societies but the scheme largely paved the way for further state interventions (see chapter 2 of Creedy andDisney 1985 andGilbert 1965). 8 Control of SSP was made by self-certification of sickness from the part of employees, which has raised concerns when expenditures on SSP turned out to increase more rapidly than Sickness Benefit (Creedy and Disney, 1985 page 127).…”