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plus 2.4 million dependants were covered. (This system had been on the cards since 1963 when the Medical Insurance Act was passed.) Health insurance for this first group is compulsory with premium costs shared jointly by employers and employees and the administrative costs met by the Government. As for the second stage which will cover the remainder of the population, it has not yet been announced exactly when or how this will be implemented. According to one of my Trade Union Federation contacts the system will be expanded to cover enter- prises of 300 employees or more, as well as government officials and school teachers, in 1979, but is not expected to cover the whole population until around 1987.
6. Meanwhile the National Welfare Pension Programme, enacted in 1973, is expected to get off the ground in 1980, sweeping up as it does so the separate pension schemes that exist at present for civil servants, military personnel and teachers.
7. A start has finally been made therefore and, although a precise timetable has yet to be made public, there is no shortage of plans in the pipelines and no doubt that the Government is at last tackling the problem seriously. In this respect the
While Budget figures for the years 1976 to 1979 are revealing. expenditure on economic development has fallen steadily from 25.5 to 20.3 per cent during this period expenditure on social development has risen from 19.7 to 24.4 per cent.
8. As details of the spread of social insurance and other welfare programmes here are made known I shall try to keep you and other interested parties informed.
8.
In view of the general nature of this letter I am sending copies to Paul Whiteway in FED and Harry Hurst, the Overseas Labour Adviser.
cc PR Whiteway Esq, FED, FCO
HR G Hurst Esq, OLA, FCO
Your eve
'Waniditon
W Morris
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