A Budget for Medical Care Insurance *

The need for insurance against medical costs was questioned or denied until recently by leading professional associations. Now, this need is accepted; and remaining differences of opinion center mainly on the alternatives of compulsory and voluntary insurance, and on scope, structure, and control of insurance plans. Discussions of national medical-care insurance have been largely concerned with broad questions of public policy, objectives and goals, dangers and fears; relatively little attention has been given to the detailed' specifications of an insurance system. But now, when further legislative action on national health impends, attention to detail becomes more likely and more urgent. Since prospective costs may play an important role in affecting decisions, the budget for a national system of insurance may be of considerable interest. The details of a cost analysis, and the specifications with which it is associated, have been given elsewhere;t only a summary of the results can be included here.