Global Marketplace For Private Health Insurance

Financial protection against the cost of illness and inclusion of vulnerable groups will require better mobilization and use of private means. Private voluntary health insurance already plays an important role in mobilizing additional resources to the health sector and protecting against the catastrophic cost of illness in some countries. This review explores the context under which private voluntary health insurance could contribute to an improvement in the sustainability of the health sector and financial protection in other countries.

Financial markets, actors, institutions and technologies are increasingly determining which kinds of services and 'welfare' are available, how these are narrated, and what comes to represent the 'common sense' in the policy world and in everyday life. This Element problematises the rationale and operation of one such financial technology, private health insurance, and the industry it inhabits. It offers a cross-disciplinary overview of the various drivers of these markets in middle-income countries and their appeal for development institutions and for governments. Using a range of illustrative case examples and drawing on critical scholarship it considers how new markets are pursued and how states are entangled with market development. It reflects on how the private health insurance sector in turn is shaping and segmenting health systems, and also our ideas about rights, fairness and responsibility.

Lives at Risk identifies 20 myths about health care as delivered in countries that have national health insurance. These myths have gained the status of fact in both the United States and abroad, even though the evidence shows a far different reality. The authors also explore the political and economic climate of the health care system and offer alternatives to the current health care public policies.

This book aims to help countries design and implement a legal framework for a viable private health insurance market, with rationale for insurance regulation, institutions involved, and standards and protections used in regulating private health insurance.

A collection of comparative case studies analysing the history, politics and performance of private health insurance globally and its implications for universal health coverage. This is essential reading for graduate students, scholars and policy makers working on health systems financing worldwide.

This Handbook covers major topics in global health economics and public policy and provides a timely, systematic review of the field. Edited by Richard M Scheffler, Distinguished Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy and Director of the Global Center for Health Economics and Policy Research at the University of California, Berkeley, the Handbook features academics and practitioners from more than a dozen countries. Contributors are from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, University of York, University of Oslo, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of California - Berkeley, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Toronto, University of Oxford, Harvard Medical School, OECD, the World Health Organization and the World Bank, many of whom have also acted as economic and policy advisors to government and non-governmental organizations across the world. Experts in these areas who provide critical analyses and relevant data for further exploration and research include: Thomas E Getzen, Executive Director of the International Health Economics Association (iHEA); Douglas E Hough, Associate Scientist and Associate Director of the Master in Healthcare Management programme at the Bloomberg School of Public Health of John Hopkins University; Guillem López-Casasnovas, former President of iHEA and member of the Advisory Council of the Spanish Health and Social Welfare Ministry and of the Advisory Council of the Catalan Health Ministry since 1984; Alistair McGuire, Professor of Health Economics at the London School of Economics and Political and advisor to a number of governments and governmental bodies across Europe; Tor Iversen, Research Director at the Health Economics Research Programme at the University of Oslo and former member of the iHEA Arrow Award Committee 2007-2011; William H Dow, Professor and Associate Dean for Research at University of California ,Berkeley and former Senior Economist for the Council of Economic Advisors (White House); Audrey Laporte, the Director of the Canadian Centre for Health Economics; Alexander S Preker, President and CEO of Health Investment & Financing Corporation; Ayda Yurekli, who initiated and developed the World Health Organization TaXSiM simulation model that has been used by many Ministries of Finance around the world for the development of tax policies; Marko Vujicic, Managing Vice President of the Health Policy Resources Center at the American Dental Association; Mark Sculpher, Director of the Programme on Economic Evaluation and Health Technology Assessment at the University of York and former President of the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) (2011-2012); and Peter Berman, who has had almost 40 years of experience in global health and was formerly a Lead Health Economist at the World Bank. The Handbook spans across three volumes. The chapters deal with key global issues in health economics, are evidence-based, and offer innovative policy alternatives and solutions. The Handbook's approach toward global health economics and public policy will make it a useful resource for health economists, policymakers, private sector companies, NGOs, government decision-makers and those who manage healthcare systems.

This book presents an in-depth review on the role of health care financing in improving access for low-income populations to needed care, protecting them from the impoverishing effects of illness, and addressing the important issues of social exclusion in government financed programs.

"As a relatively new subdiscipline of economics, health economics has made many contributions to areas of the main discipline, such as insurance economics. This volume provides a survey of the burgeoning literature on the subject of health economics." {source : site de l'éditeur].