Practice 10　　Every British citizen who is employed (or self-employed) is obliged to pay a weekly contribution to the national insurance and health schemes. An employer also makes a contribution for each of his employees, and the Government too pays a certain amount. This plan was brought into being in 1948. Its aim is to prevent anyone from going without medical services, if he needs them, however poor he may be; to ensure that a person who is out of work shall receive a weekly sum of money to subsist on; and to provide a small pension for those who have reached the age of retirement.　　Everyone can register with a doctor of his choice and if he is ill he can consult the doctor without having to pay for the doctor's service, although he has to pay a small charge for medicines. The doctor may, if necessary, send a patient to a specialist, or to hospital~ in both cases treatment will be given without any fees being payable. Those who wish may become private patients, paying for their treatment, but they must still pay their contributions to the national insurance and health schemes.