Health Insurance

[Dennis]

Hi,

Wondering who paid for patient care in hospitals? Were financial records kept by the hospitals? Thought it may be an area that could provide some genealogic info.

dennis

[LesleyB]

Hi Dennis
There are archived records available for some hospitals e.g.
http://134.36.1.31/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=D ... vel='fonds'))

• Dundee Royal Infirmary
  Date 1819-1998
  Description Charters, Bye-laws and Regulations 1878-1899, Reports 1826-1946, Minutes 1902- 1974, Financial Records 1894 -1975...etc
  
  Royal Dundee Liff Hospital
  Date 1805-1998
  Description Charters, Regulations and Bye-laws 1825-1928; Chartularies 1811-1937; Property Records, 1829-1967; Reports 1830-1990; Minutes 1820-1948; Administration Records 1882-1960; Financial Records, 1805-1986...etc

...but as with many other similar type of record, when it comes to the patients' names there is usually 100yr closure on them.

I think hospitals were often funded by public subscription, voluntary contributions and sometimes gifts from benefactors, and pateints or their families often had to pay for their stay as far as I'm aware. See:
http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/publications/arti ... sabled.pdf
...but I'm sure some of our members will be able to expand more on this.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Dennis]

Hi Lesley,

Thank you for the info. The person I'm trying to find about out died at Belvidere Hospital at 6:20am on the 23rd of March 1875, aged 44, cause of death Typhus Fever as certified by Dr. Alex Reid.

Would the hospital let the body be removed without payment by either a relative or an insurance company; if a funeral parlor took the body would they not have had to sign some document for record purposes?
There's got to be a financial paper trail, especially in Scotland:)


Regards. dennis

[LesleyB]

Hi dennis
Just found this - , NHS Greater Glasgow Archive. You may have seen it before:
Records of Belvidere Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland

Best wishes
Lesley

[Russell]

Hi Dennis

I don't think there was such a thing as a funeral parlour back then although there were undertakers who would organise the actual funeral.
Sometimes the body was taken back to their own house and laid out there by their relatives or by the local person who was 'good at those things' ! No doubt some money would change hands for the service given.

In small villages the local joiner was also the the coffin maker.
As far as I know, with deaths in hospital the relatives were expected to make all the arrangements, including financial settlements before the body was released. Maybe thats why there were so many pawn shops in towns & cities ?!
Some folks were lucky and worked for a benevolent employer who would provide a form of health insurance for his employess, and if they were very lucky, their families as well. Before 1948 (the start of the NHS) my doctor (GP) was funded by the local coal company my father worked for and hospitalisation was partially covered.
Lesley's summary of hospital income is about right. Some were charitable institutions funded by major benefactors. Others were Voluntary hospitals which were funded by various combinations of local authority cash and charitable donations by the appreciatiove public. The third type were wholly maintained by Parish councils as part of their Poor Law and Asylum provision. Many were mixtures of different types of income.
Even into the 1930's Fetes and Gala days were being held to raise cash to endow a bed or a piece of equipment at the local hospital.
Belvidere was a Fevers Hospital and was Parish funded as far as I know.

Russell

[DavidWW]

Starting in the mid-1800s there were numerous "Friendly Societies", (the Oddfellows, Forresters, and many more such) the main purposes of which were to provide some payment in the event of unemployment, and sometimes a contribution to funeral expenses.

Each member contributed a few pence per week.

Towards the end of the 19th C and into the early decades of the 20th C, these friendly societies were largely superceded by trades union schemes (although some of them still exist today, largely for charitable purposes).

Then came the National Insurance Act of 1911, which eventually, i.e. I don't believe that it was from 1911, paid a widow a death grant (not a widower, lads !! )

David

[Russell]

Thanks for that David

You have just reminded me that my grandfather was in an organisation called 'The Loyal League of Border Shepherds' or something similar, in Edinburgh.
They apparently had a structure akin to the Masonic Order with Grand Masters and full regalia. I still have his plaid brooch and can remember seeing his black, white and grey plaid and glengarry.
This despite the fact that he was employed by the North British Railway in a fairly senior position and should have had some protection from illness at least. He had a good pension from this employment.

Russell

[joette]

Ditto my GGreat-Grandfather Andrew Young in his full regalia for his "League of Loyal Gardeners" in Penicuik.He was a gardener & I do have the invoice from his 1906 Death & that of his wife 1905.The only discount was the "digging" of the grave was deducted from his wife's funeral cost. I am presuming he had some connection with the cemetery & they dug the grave for free.Maybe he did it himself & this sent him off shortly thereafter!
I am informed by my 2nd Cousin from whence the photo came that the "Gardeners" was a type of social cum welfare society.

[StewL]

After reading this thread about paying the bills before the family got the body. I thought oh well looks like a lot of my land deid yins must still be in a wee room oot the back of the hospital waiting to be paid for and collected

[marilyn morning]

Thank goodness I have paid "Life Insurance"