The Beveridge Report of 1942 pointed to the establishment of a
comprehensive national health service as a necessary
underpinning to a national social insurance scheme. Labour had a
long-standing commitment to a national health service, which was
reaffirmed in the National Service for Health policy document of
1943. Debate on the matter commenced under the Coalition
Government and led to the White Paper 'A National Health
Service' published in February 1944, that proposed a
comprehensive and free service. The British Medical Association
resisted the proposal that some general practitioners should
become salaried state employees under the scheme. Henry Willink,
Minister for Health under Churchill, produced a compromise White
Paper, which enabled general practitioners to continue as
independent contractors or private practitioners. Following
Labour's election victory in July 1945, Aneurin Bevan was
appointed Minister of Health. Within a matter of weeks, Bevan
produced a plan for a fully nationalised and regional