<P> Based on Bismarck's message, the Reichstag filed three bills designed to deal with the concept of accident insurance and one for health Insurance . Retirement pensions and disability insurance were placed on the back burner for the time being . Other bills were passed after Bismarck left office . </P> <P> The first bill that had success was the Health Insurance bill, which was passed in 1883 . The program was considered the least important from Bismarck's point of view and the least politically troublesome . The program was established to provide health insurance for the largest segment of the German workers . The health service was established on a local basis, with the cost divided between employers and the employed . The employers contributed one - third, the workers the rest . The contributions were made to "sickness funds", which employees could draw from when they needed medical care . The minimum payments for medical treatment and sick pay for up to 13 weeks were legally fixed . The individual local health bureaus were administered by a committee elected by the members of each bureau and this move had the unintended effect of establishing a majority representation for the workers on account of their large financial contribution . This worked to the advantage of the Social Democrats, who through heavy worker membership achieved their first small foothold in public administration . </P> <P> Bismarck's government had to submit three draft bills before it could get one passed by the Reichstag in 1884 . Bismarck had originally proposed that the federal government should pay a portion of the accident insurance contribution to show the willingness of the German government to lessen the hardship experienced by the German workers as a means of weaning them away from the various left - wing parties, most importantly the Social Democrats . The National Liberals took this program to be an expression of state socialism, which they were strongly against . The Centre Party was afraid of the expansion of federal power at the expense of states' rights . As a result, the only way the program could be passed at all was for the entire expense to be underwritten by the employers . To facilitate this, Bismarck arranged for the administration of this program to be placed in the hands of "the organization of employers in occupational corporations". This organization established central and bureaucratic insurance offices on the federal and in some cases the state level to perform the actual administration . The program kicked in to replace the health insurance program as of the 14th week . It paid for medical treatment and a pension of up to two - thirds of earned wages if the worker was fully disabled . This program was expanded in 1886 to include agricultural workers . </P> <P> The old age pension program, financed by a tax on workers, was designed to provide a pension annuity for workers who reached the age of 70 . At the time, the life expectancy for the average Prussian was 45, although this reflects the high infant mortality of the era and retired workers could expect to live until 70 years . Unlike accident insurance and health insurance, this program covered industrial, agrarian, artisans and servants from the start . Unlike the other two programs, the principle that the federal government should also contribute a portion of the underwriting cost, with the other two portions prorated accordingly, was accepted without question . The disability insurance program was intended to be used by those permanently disabled . This time, the state supervised the programs directly . </P>

Who introduced state socialism in germany and why