Chapter 378: Medical Security Bill

The Boer War lasted for a year and a half and finally ended, and Gao Da had long expected that the British could not let the war continue to drag on.

The Boers were after all just a nation with a population of four or five hundred thousand, and the difficulty of wanting to change their fate against the heavens was extremely high, and it could even be said to be wishful thinking.

Being able to drag on for a year and a half, besides their own quite tenacious resistance will, there was also the support of European countries which played a very key role.

The reason why the Boer War in history took two and a half years was mainly because after the British fully occupied the two Boer countries, the Boers' resistance to the British government and the corresponding guerrilla warfare were also counted in.

If calculated this way, the time spent on the current Boer War must be longer than in history.

Because the Boers in this world had deeper hatred for the British, if the British wanted to solve the trouble of the Boers, they still needed to send a large number of garrison troops in the Transvaal and Orange regions to completely eliminate these resolute resistance elements.

The British in history still had to maintain a garrison of more than 200,000 troops after winning the Boer War to ensure that the local area would not be re-occupied by the Boers.

These garrison troops were also a large military expenditure, which also meant that although the Boer War ended, the British still had to pay a large amount of capital, manpower, and material resources every year to fight against the Boers.

This could also be considered good news for Spain and European countries. No matter whether the British government was willing or not, in order to suppress the Boers in South Africa, they had to mobilize a large number of troops and spend a large amount of military budget.

The end of the Boer War did not make Gao Da pay too much attention to the situation in South Africa, because in 1896, the Spanish medical department was about to have major movements.

"Your Majesty, this is the medical security plan formulated by us after more than half a year of preparation, referring to the social security regulations related to European countries and combining with our national conditions." Minister of Health Valentino Hernandez handed a medical insurance bill to Gao Da and introduced it very respectfully.

The main content of the bill was medical insurance regulations related to workers. Formulating such a plan was actually a helpless choice of social development.

Spain's reform and the Five-Year Development Plan effectively promoted the development of industry and also made the Spanish worker group reach millions.

Although the government also issued some bills to protect the rights and interests of workers, the essence of this era was that capitalists oppressed workers, and Spain could not change the essence of the era.

Workers themselves were a high-income group, which had supreme attraction for those lower-income Spaniards. With the opening of technical schools in Spain, a large number of people became technical workers through technical schools or other ways every year and joined the large group of workers.

These worker groups that kept pouring into the industry disguisedly increased the competitiveness among workers. This also led to the fact that factory owners had more choices, and in order to keep their jobs, workers had to agree to the factory owners' requirements for overtime.

The Spanish government had repeatedly ordered this, and there were various requirements for overtime duration and overtime pay. If workers were injured because of overtime, the factory not only needed to see a doctor for the workers but also needed to make certain compensation.

Although such policies guaranteed the interests of workers to a certain extent, as the saying goes, there are policies above and countermeasures below, and wanting to fully guarantee the interests of workers is fundamentally impossible to achieve in this era.

Capitalists had a large number of means to force workers to work overtime for free. If workers were unwilling, capitalists could choose to dismiss the workers.

This was after all not later generations, where dismissing an employee required more compensation. In this era, dismissing employees did not require too much compensation, just pay off the salary of the worker's previous working time.

There had been multiple incidents of workers being injured because of long-term overtime leading to mental confusion and finally triggering accidents.

Although under the supervision of the government and the urging of the Workers' Party, these factories where accidents occurred all compensated the workers.

But obviously, these compensations were just a drop in the bucket compared to the workers' losses. If they were unfortunately disabled because of this, even if they could cure their injuries, they would basically not be able to find a job in the future.

This was a huge blow to the family where the worker was located; the pillar of the family could not find a job, which meant that this family would not be able to obtain enough income for a long time in the future.

Aiming at such a phenomenon, Gao Da had already ordered the medical department to discuss related bills last year, referring to the handling methods of European countries, to provide certain security for workers' medical problems.

With a relatively perfect medical security system, even if workers had any accidents in the process of working in the future, they could cure their injuries through the medical security system and use the factory's compensation to maintain their lives, instead of using the factory's compensation to see their own illness and then being impoverished for a lifetime.

Gao Da picked up this medical security bill and read it carefully.

First of all, it must be clear that the medical security system of this era was definitely impossible to be as perfect as later generations.

In order to let those factory owners agree to pay a part of the medical security fund for workers, the medical department reduced the proportion handed over by factories to 30%, and the remaining 70% needed to be paid by workers individually.

This was also a matter of no choice. If factories were asked to bear most of the medical security fund, this would greatly increase the cost of factories using people.

In this way, the situation of those smaller-scale factories would become even more worrying. This was no longer a matter of whether those factory owners were willing to pay the medical security fund, but a matter of whether those small factories could continue to survive after this bill was established.

For workers, although 70% of the medical security fund needed to be paid by themselves, this at least allowed them to have no worries.

If no accidents occurred in the process of working, it would be fine, even if an accident occurred, the compensation of the medical security fund was enough to let their family survive the most difficult time.

Although this might not be the best choice, for Spain at present, such a bill could effectively improve the situation of workers.

"Regarding the payment of the medical security fund, what kind of supervision intensity does the medical department plan to adopt?" Gao Da did not rush to nod and agree to this bill, but asked about the questions he cared about.

Although this bill looked like it could improve the current medical situation of workers, the payment problem of the medical security fund was also the top priority.

First was whether workers were willing to pay this medical security fund, and second was whether factory owners would delay the payment of workers' medical security fund.

For factory owners, they would definitely delay for as long as they could.

The various procedures of policies in this era were not complete, if there was a phenomenon where factory owners promised to pay the security fund but finally delayed or even did not pay under various excuses, wouldn't this mean that this bill would lose its effect in the end?

Hearing Gao Da's inquiry, Minister of Health Valentino Hernandez replied very respectfully: "Your Majesty, we plan to specifically establish a medical security department to supervise and manage the payment of medical security funds.

Once it is discovered that there is a discrepancy between the number of employees in a factory and the number of medical security funds paid, the department can also handle it in time."

Gao Da nodded and said: "Looking at it this way, this department supervising the payment of medical security funds needs to involve several aspects. Let's do this, this department will be affiliated under the Ministry of Health, but will be jointly supervised by the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of People's Livelihood, and the Ministry of Health.

The intention of this bill is good, and I hope this bill can effectively improve the medical situation of workers, so that workers don't have to worry about their future when working."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Valentino Hernandez naturally also understood that such a supervision department could not be controlled by the medical department alone.

After all, it was necessary to contact various factories, and it definitely needed the support of relevant industrial departments. Medical care itself was closely related to the Ministry of People's Livelihood, and only by the cooperation of several departments was it possible to promote this bill perfectly.

"If we want to fully promote this bill, how much capital budget do we need?" Gao Da continued to ask.

The purpose of this kind of medical security was definitely not to make money. Wanting to guarantee the worker group of millions in Spain, the government must pay enough capital budget for this.

Once it involved capital, it still needed careful consideration. Spain was no longer what it used to be, and with a powerful navy, Spain's military expenditure had been rising.

Under such circumstances, in order to avoid fiscal stimulation, various departments could only save fiscal budget as much as possible.

If promoting this bill required too much fiscal budget, Gao Da could only consider piloting it in some areas, or temporarily delaying the promotion of the bill. "Your Majesty, we have considered the situation of cooperating with several major insurance companies in the country. If we cooperate with these insurance companies, we can effectively reduce our fiscal budget expenditure.

Assuming that all workers in the country have purchased medical insurance, according to the current probability of factory accidents, our annual expenditure is about 15 million pesetas."

Gao Da nodded, such expenditure was still within the acceptable range.

"Those insurance companies in the country are after all profit-oriented. I don't exclude cooperation with them, but corresponding supervision work should be done well.

I don't want our workers to work hard to buy medical security funds, but in the end, they are refused compensation by insurance companies after being injured.

This point especially needs attention. As long as the conditions for compensation are met, whether it is the government's insurance company or a private one, they should unconditionally pay medical compensation to workers.

When cooperating with insurance companies in the country, this point should be made clear to them. The government does not oppose them making money, but they should also do things while making money." Gao Da ordered.

Although cooperating with insurance companies could effectively reduce the government's fiscal expenditure, Gao Da was quite clear about the means of these insurance companies.

Through the means of refusing compensation, insurance companies could reduce a large amount of expenditure. There were indeed some incidents that did not meet the compensation scene, but there was also a considerable part that met the compensation scene, but insurance companies refused compensation with various means and excuses.

Gao Da did not want the medical bill specifically set up for workers to be a wedding dress for these insurance companies. The money that should be earned should naturally be earned, but the things that should be done must also be done.

"Yes, I understand, King Majesty." Minister of Health Valentino Hernandez nodded very solemnly, and he naturally also understood the importance of supervising these insurance companies.

This was after all a project to benefit the people, but if these insurance companies were allowed to take advantage of the loopholes and become the final beneficiaries, it would not only make the political achievements that the medical department was about to get vanish, but might even make the medical department take responsibility.

After all, the dissatisfaction of workers was not a joke. The dissatisfaction of farmers would generally be endured, which was also the reason why the rule of European countries was relatively stable before the arrival of the industrial era.

But if the worker group produced dissatisfaction, they would likely walk on the street to parade. Once a large-scale parade broke out, there would be a trend of evolving into an armed uprising.

Valentino Hernandez did not dare to bear the consequences of angering the worker group. What's more, the Workers' Party, which took protecting the interests of workers as its party program and party constitution, had also become an important party in Spain.

If workers paid medical security funds but could not obtain compensation, even without workers parading, the monstrous anger of the Workers' Party was something he could not bear.

After all, the Spanish Lower House still had supervision power over the cabinet government. If he was impeached by a Workers' Party member, even if he could be safe in the end, his political career would basically be over.

Establishing the Workers' Party was also Gao Da's plan, allowing the worker group to have a channel to express their political propositions.

As long as workers found that pushing members to put forward proposals in the Lower House was far more effective than parading, they would gradually give up the way of parading.

Gao Da attached great importance to the opinions of workers. Although there had been no phenomenon of Workers' Party members impeaching cabinet members, Workers' Party members had already put forward multiple bills beneficial to workers, some of which had been formally passed in the Lower House, which was also the reason why the Workers' Party received widespread support from workers, because the Workers' Party was really doing things.

Since it had been determined that this bill was feasible, then the most important thing next was to put forward this bill in the Lower House, and then let the members vote and express their opinions.

This kind of bill that had already been internally decided to pass would naturally not be blocked in the Lower House.

The voting result was also very obvious, passed with more than 75% of the votes, and this medical security bill also started to be executed smoothly.

After the bill was formally passed, the medical department contacted several large insurance companies in Spain.

Regarding the cooperation with the medical department, these insurance companies were also quite willing. After all, the so-called medical insurance involved the entire worker group of all of Spain, which was at least a number of millions.

Even if the government's supervision intensity was very strong, the so-called medical insurance was very profitable.

After all, the accident rate of factories could not be too high, if the accident rate was relatively high, then the factory would not have the necessity to continue opening.

After all, one accident required a large amount of compensation, which was also a not small expense for factory owners.

Especially those relatively large factories, once an accident occurred, the injured might be more than one worker.

In order to ensure that such a policy would not be resisted by the worker group, the medical department decided to promote it in Ma Deli and Barcelona first.

Ma Deli and Barcelona were also the two largest industrial cities in Spain, and the number of workers owned by these two cities had reached nearly one million.

Piloting in these two cities was very necessary, which could not only test the attitude of the worker group toward this medical bill but also test whether this medical bill had substantial help to the worker group.

The good news was that because of the Spanish government's good reputation among the people, this bill did not get the rejection of the worker group.

Upon learning that they needed to pay 70% of the medical security fund, the worker group did have some hesitation. But factory owners after all also needed to pay the remaining 30%, and these medical securities were aimed at the workers themselves, and the government would also strongly supervise, which looked like it still had a few points of credibility.

Many workers, after the government's propaganda, spontaneously bought the worker medical insurance launched by insurance companies.

When the medical department was conducting propaganda, it also specifically emphasized which insurance companies were cooperating with the government.

The medical department even specifically promised that as long as they bought medical insurance in insurance companies cooperating with the government, if these insurance companies refused compensation in the future, the government could force insurance companies to make ten times the compensation.

This indeed let some workers feel at ease; after all, the promise of the Spanish government at this time was still very effective, and most workers were relatively at ease.

As for those factory owners, whether they would be dissatisfied because of this, this was not something the Spanish government should consider.

If it was said that the dissatisfaction of the worker group could still have an impact on the Spanish government, then the department of factory owners had very little impact on the Spanish government.

Although factory owners also belonged to capitalists, the power of these small and medium-sized capitalists could not shake Spain, which was promoting state capitalism.

Whether it was the capital owned by the Spanish government or the capital owned by the royal family, they were not something these small factory owners could contend with.

Even, the factories owned by the Spanish government and the royal family were the largest factories in Spain. Under the premise that the government and the royal family took the lead in paying the workers' medical security funds, what guts did the remaining small and medium-sized factories have to resist the government's policy?

The government was after all the government, and capitalists were after all just capitalists. Wanting to contend with the government by the power of capitalists was not something that the environment of Spain at present could achieve.

The means of capitalists contending with the government were nothing more than inciting workers to parade. But the problem was that the Spanish workers at this time knew that this medical bill was for themselves, so they naturally could not listen to the orders of capitalists and go to launch related protest parades.

Coupled with the fact that the Workers' Party had become one of the choices for workers to express their own propositions, if capitalists really dared to incite workers to parade, I am afraid they would be hung on the street lamp the next day.

5,000 words, first update, there is another update before 2 o'clock, thank you for your support!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 379 =====