From the archives: Mileage rates for doctors, 23 June, 1922

Published on 23/06/2012 03:31

SOME misunderstanding has arisen over a suggested amendment to the proposed [health insurance] Bill.

Clause 4 proposes to abandon the uniform basis hitherto in operation and increase the charge to be paid by insured persons in Scotland for medical benefit by 4½d per person.

It was explained in the second reading that this differentiation is due to the fact that in Scotland and Wales the populations are more scattered and the roads and distances doctors have to travel rather longer and the mileage rates consequently higher than in England. The amendment is designed not, as has been supposed, to reduce the mileage rates paid to doctors in Scotland, but to secure that the rates of contribution by the insured persons should be the same throughout the kingdom, the argument being that the whole principle of insurance is an averaging of risks.

• archive.scotsman.com