§ 32. Mr. CURRIEasked the Comptroller of the Household, as representing the National Health Insurance Commissioners, what steps are being taken to reimburse insurance committees for the loss caused to them by the provisions of Clause 20 of the 1917 Act?
The VICE-CHAMBERLAIN of the HOUSEHOLD (Lieutenant-Commander Dudley Ward)The hon. Member's question presumably refers to the provision of Section 20 (1) of the National Health Insurance Act, 1918, under which, in the case of an insured person without dependants who is an inmate of a sanatorium, the amount of the sickness benefit is no longer payable to the Insurance Committee. The income derived by insurance committees from this source has in the main either accumulated as a balance or has been used to supplement their 908 administration income or their sanatorium benefit income. For each of these latter purposes the funds of insurance committees have recently been materially increased by new Exchequer Grants.