§ 67. Sir ROBERT NEWMANasked the President of the Local Government Board whether, in view of the reluctance of insured persons with dependants to avail themselves of sanatorium treatment, steps will be taken to amend Section 1 of the Act of 1913 in order that insurance committees might grant subsistence allowance in respect of dependants of insured persons while the insured persons were undergoing treatment in sanatoria?
§ Mr. PRATT (Lord of the Treasury)I have been asked to reply to this question. Provision is already made in Section 20 of the National Health Insurance Act of 1918, under which the sickness benefit of insured persons may be paid to dependants of insured persons undergoing treatment in a sanatorium. The question whether Parliament should be asked to provide further money under Section 1 of the National Insurance Act, 1913, is one which must, I think, merge in the larger economic question governing the residential treatment of the whole tuberculous population.