CMA's proposal for a voluntary, universally available Health Benefits Program. A socio-economic report of the Bureau of Research and Planning, California Medical Association.

The May 4, 1970 issue of the American Medical News contains an article on a report released in April by the British Medical Association following a two-year study of the British National Health Service. Although the BMA study is oriented to the specific program as it has evolved in Great Britain since 1946, its main thrust is in the development of a system of voluntary health insurance which would provide for greater consumer choice, based upon nationally determined guidelines and regulations. BMA's recommendations would have the NHS utilize a combination of tax-supported and voluntary-supported mechanisms in providing medical services to various segments of the population, based upon categories of illness and income levels. Since the BMA proposal as reported in the AMA News parallels in some respects the one approved by the CMA House of Delegates and submitted to the AMA House of Delegates for its consideration, the reader will be interested in seeing the concept for a Voluntary Universally Available Health Benefits Program, independently developed by the California Medical Association. It is interesting to note that the CMA proposal attempts to avoid many of the problems with which the NHS has been identified, and at the same time would establish a single, coherent, integrated approach for development over the next decade, incorporating public programs into a unified system of medical care which utilizes the multiplicity of voluntary health insurance approaches and mechanisms.