OCR Text |
Show OPERATION OF BRITISH INSURANCE ACT The act gave the most generous trms to persons not coming under! the compulsory clauses to insure! themselves roluntaril If under 4i they could come In up to Jan 14 last at the flat rate of 7d for men and 6d for women. If over 54. or If tbe came in after that date, they paid the rate appropriate to their ace These terms were so generous that it was expected thaa there would be S29.000 voluntary contributors. The actual number for Creat Rntain Is onl 18,-TnT;. 18,-TnT;. That is to 8a, there ten? of thousands of men ..f 1 r. to 4r years of ase and should hae Kot for fc per 9 eek an Insurance policy worth 9d at 18 and Is 0 1 -2d at 45 who have been frightened out of this boon by the shriekings of the anti-insurance at press. With this one exception the success "f iho net has fade complete Figures can cover only the dimmest idea of its triumph, especially to those of us who me only what Shakespeare's Creaslda calls "a tapester's arithmetic arithme-tic Readers who are happily able to think England alone, up to March ".1st last, 342,848,351 health Insurance stamps had been said; but even ttrns hardened calculators will note wfti B asp the fanatical accuracy c' the odd one By Ma; list the first report re-port of the administration al the Insurance In-surance act, one of the most important im-portant blue books ever issued, Is my authority the payments into the na-tional na-tional health insurance fund for England aggregated 15,771 lbs 3e, which, I should suspect, from the absence ab-sence of pence, to a mere estimate if I had not added the figures up for myself my-self The number of insured person? in England Is not et known, but and here at the last among these stupendous accuracies we get a con ! fussion of weakness it is estimated; that they were in. 459. 500 members of 2ui',9 approved societies on January I 2tb last Another anticipation e.f fifteen, months ago has been falsified by results, re-sults, but this time most happily. The! expected number of deposit contrlbu tors was 882,000: the actual number Is only c&. 000. It Is clearly lmpossi-j ble to aold the depositor class except J by excluding them together, for they are the Inevitable result ol allowing! self government to the approved soci-j eties. they receive a very substantial! - return for their weekly parmenU the average afount paid In sickn ' claims being 7s Sd and in maternity claims lis Id, while they, of course, get mediral and sanitorlum benefit! in full. |