Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Coalminers, Accidents and Insurance in Late Nineteenth-Century England
- 2 The Costs and Benefits of Size in a Mutual Insurance System: The German Miners’
- 3 A New Welfare System: Friendly Societies in the Eastern Lombardy from 1860 to 1914
- 4 Economic Growth and Demand for Health Coverage in Spain: The Role of Friendly Societies (1870–1942)
- 5 Sickness Insurance and Welfare Reform in England and Wales, 1870–1914
- 6 From Sickness to Death: Revisiting the Financial Viability of the English Friendly Societies, 1875–1908
- 7 America's Rejection of Government Health Insurance in the Progressive Era: Implications for Understanding the Determinants and Achievements of Public Insurance of Health Risks
- 8 Medical Assistance Provided by La Conciliación, a Pamplona Mutual Assistance Association (1902–84)
- 9 In it for the Money? Insurers, Sickness Funds and the Dominance of Not-for-Profit Health Insurance in the Netherlands
- 10 Belgian Mutual Health Insurance and the Nation State
- Notes
- Index
4 - Economic Growth and Demand for Health Coverage in Spain: The Role of Friendly Societies (1870–1942)
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Coalminers, Accidents and Insurance in Late Nineteenth-Century England
- 2 The Costs and Benefits of Size in a Mutual Insurance System: The German Miners’
- 3 A New Welfare System: Friendly Societies in the Eastern Lombardy from 1860 to 1914
- 4 Economic Growth and Demand for Health Coverage in Spain: The Role of Friendly Societies (1870–1942)
- 5 Sickness Insurance and Welfare Reform in England and Wales, 1870–1914
- 6 From Sickness to Death: Revisiting the Financial Viability of the English Friendly Societies, 1875–1908
- 7 America's Rejection of Government Health Insurance in the Progressive Era: Implications for Understanding the Determinants and Achievements of Public Insurance of Health Risks
- 8 Medical Assistance Provided by La Conciliación, a Pamplona Mutual Assistance Association (1902–84)
- 9 In it for the Money? Insurers, Sickness Funds and the Dominance of Not-for-Profit Health Insurance in the Netherlands
- 10 Belgian Mutual Health Insurance and the Nation State
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The roots of the phenomenon of mutuality stretch way back in time, emanating from associations of a religious character such as the confraternities or brotherhoods of medieval origin, and from the guild networks typical of the Old Regime. From the nineteenth century onwards, both in Europe and America, the old formulas of solidarity were expanded and reinvented in order to protect a large part of the population, mainly workers, from the uncertainty arising from the risks of sickness, death, industrial accidents or old age, in view of the passivity of the liberal state. It is difficult to determine common patterns of behaviour for this international phenomenon, which was conditioned by the political context and the growth rate of each country and by the diversity of the type and extent of coverage offered, and there is also a lack of statistics for some countries. Some basic common traits of the friendly societies, however, do exist. These include their limited capacity of coverage, especially the scant value and limited duration of benefits; the limited diversification of risk, as they were often dealing with workers of the same trade; the absence of actuarial techniques and extreme sensitivity to economic cycles due to the limited nature of their reserves. Generally speaking, their heyday was between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century.
Research on friendly societies in Spain has generated an enormous flow of publications in recent years.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Welfare and Old Age in Europe and North AmericaThe Development of Social Insurance, pp. 65 - 88Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014