What did the 1911 National Insurance Act provide for British workers?

The 1911 National Insurance Act represented a significant development in the landscape of social welfare in Britain. It provided workers with access to healthcare services through a system of insurance. This marked a shift towards state involvement in healthcare, ensuring that workers could receive medical treatment when ill. The act created a framework whereby workers contributed to an insurance scheme, which would then fund their healthcare expenses when needed.

This system laid the groundwork for future developments in the British welfare state, ensuring that workers did not have to bear the full financial burden of medical care on their own. It was revolutionary for its time, as it recognized the need for collective responsibility in health.

Other choices like free healthcare or unemployment benefits only do not accurately represent the scope of the National Insurance Act. While the Act did include unemployment benefits as part of a broader framework for social insurance, its crux was providing health insurance specifically — thus point B encompasses the primary purpose of the legislation. Access to pensions post-retirement pertains to a different aspect of social security, which was not fully developed at that time under this Act.