EDINBURGH MEDICAL JOURNAL. The National Insurance EDITORIAL NOTES. Now that the National Insurance Act has been placed on the Statute Book, the medical profession is brought face to face with a problem the solution of which will determine for good or evil the status of Medicine in this country for at least a generation. There is no longer room for doubt that the great body of the profession throughout the country is thoroughly dissatisfied with the provisions of the Act, in so far as they relate to the administration of medical benefit. When the British Medical Association opened the campaign—and we fully and frankly acknowledge the invaluable aid the Association rendered in awakening the profession: to the dangers of the situation, and in rallying it to the defence of its interests-the terms on which the members of the profession were willing to take their share in working the scheme were clearly intimated to the Government. These claims were reasonable; they were not stated as a basis for bargaining but as an irreducible minimum; and although they have not been conceded, they are as essential as ever. An honest and strenuous effort was made by those who represented us in the negotiations to secure such changes in the Bill as were necessary to make its provisions consistent with the claims we put forward. There may be room for difference of opinion as to the wisdom of the tactics employed by our representatives at certain stages of the discussion, and some of their actions have even given reasonable grounds for adverse criticism, but of their bona fides there is no doubt, and it would be grossly unfair to attribute our failure to them alone. The hope that the members of a single profession, scattered throughout the country, with no collective political power, would succeed in thwarting the most subtle and astute politician of our generation, was, as we now see, from the outset small. The general political situation was also unfavourable to us, and lent a fictitious strength to our opponents. Other factors may have contributed to our want of success, but that we have up to the present failed to secure the concessions we aimed at there is no doubt. Those, however, who suppose that this set-back spells defeat, realise neither the motives which actuate the profession nor the spirit which animates it. E. M. J. VOL. VIII. NO. I. 69319 1 BRAS |