Introduction * The emergence of hospital contributory schemes * Mass contribution and hospital finance in inter-war Britain * The geography of hospital contributory schemes: membership, reciprocity and integration * Hospital contribution and civil society: humanity not democracy? * Contributory schemes, workmen governors and local control of hospital policy * The 'impending cataclysm': the state and hospital contribution, 1941-1946 * The contributory schemes and the coming of the NHS * 'Where the shoe pinches': reorientation under the NHS * The health cash plans and the new mutualism in health care * Concluding comments Introduction * The emergence of hospital contributory schemes * Mass contribution and hospital finance in inter-war Britain * The geography of hospital contributory schemes: membership, reciprocity and integration * Hospital contribution and civil society: humanity not democracy? * Contributory schemes, workmen governors and local control of hospital policy * The 'impending cataclysm': the state and hospital contribution, 1941-1946 * The contributory schemes and the coming of the NHS * 'Where the shoe pinches': reorientation under the NHS * The health cash plans and the new mutualism in health care * Concluding comments.