THE INSURANCE ACT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 551, 19 March 1913, Page 3

THE INSURANCE ACT.

When the Insurance Act came into operation in the Mother Country during January there was an extraordinary rush of insured workers to the doctors who had arranged to »serve under the new order. Tens of thousands of men and women went for advice and assistance which they had been afraid to seek previously, owing to the cost of a consultation and the need for remaining at work. The Act had only not placed medical attention at their disposal but had also provided sick pay and sanatorium benefits for them, so that the poorly paid Workers could afford to admit their illnesses frankly. A typical case was that of a man who presented himself for examination. "Go home to bed at once," said the doctor as soon as he had diagnosed the trouble, "and 1 will come round to you to-morrow." The man simply could not have gone lo bed in the days before the insurance law became operative, since a family depended on his earnings, and the doctor could not have visited the home without an invitation, lest he should be imposing a burden of debt upon it. The new system gives the panel doctor the status of a public servant and the medical men themselves predict that the benefit to the health of the nation will be enormous.