122	THE  BRITISH  APPROACH  TO POLITICS
Act was carried through Parliament under the direction of
Mr. Lloyd George in 1911; though it has been much altered,
the fundamentals of the system are still the same. In general,
all manual workers, and all other workers earning less than
£250 a year, are included in the scheme; the chief exceptions are
those groups of workers who have similar schemes connected
with their own employment. At the present time about eighteen
million workers are affected. The great majority belong tov
Approved Societies, which are often connected with the Trade
Union or religious denomination of the insured person. These
societies receive weekly contributions from employers and
employed, and some assistance from the State; they are thus
able to pay sickness and disablement benefit when their members
are unable to work through ill health. They are "approved" by
the Ministry of Health, provided that they are not run for profit,
and that they keep their accounts in the prescribed manner.
For the 250,000 workers who do not belong to any society, the
Ministry organises, through the Post Office, a separate fund.
In addition to ordinary benefits, the insured woman or the
wife of an insured .man has a right to maternity benefit, and
the various societies according to their resources may grant
"additional benefits", such as treatment for eyes or teeth. Thus
a society whose members are on the whole younger or less liable
to illness than an average group of workers, will have more to
spare for additional benefits; the inequalities in this respect are
considerable, and constitute a weakness in the scheme. The
Ministry periodically examines the resources of each society
to see what additional benefits it can afford.
Medical benefit, i.e., the services of doctors, and the supply of
medicines, provides a considerable administrative problem.
Each County and County Borough has to set up a Local Insur-
ance Committee composed of representatives of the Approved
Societies, the local doctors, the Ministry of Health, and the local
authorities themselves. These committees prepare lists of "panel"
doctors and chemists, and arrange for the payment of their