The market of private health insurance is characterised by high level of consumer inertia. Low consumer activity is probably linked to product complexity, abundance of choice options and low consumer understanding. These factors may overwhelm consumers and reduce willingness to engage with the...

Healthcare cost acceleration and resource allocation issues have worsened across European health systems, where a small group of patients drives excessive healthcare spending. The prediction of high-cost utilization patterns is important for the sustainable management of healthcare and focused...

Objectives Value-based insurance design (VBID) aims to direct consumers' preferences by incentivizing the use of high-value care and discouraging the use of low-value care. However, consumers often have limited knowledge of health insurance and the health insurance system, possibly distorting...

The Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN) in Australia was designed to provide financial assistance to patients with high out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for medical treatment. The EMSN works on a calendar year basis. Once a patient incurs a specified amount of OOP costs, the EMSN provides additional...

Foreigners from third countries are not entitled to participate in the Czech public health insurance system unless they have either permanent residence in the Czech Republic or a Czech employer. This article aims to analyse the economic impact of the possible inclusion of such foreigners into...

Background We investigate access disparities in pharmaceutical care among German patients with type 2 diabetes, focusing on differences between public and private health insurance schemes. The primary objectives include investigating whether patients with private health insurance experience...

In Österreich wurden insgesamt 53,6 Mrd. € für Gesundheit ausgegeben (2022). Mit etwa 12,5 Mrd. € finanzierte der private Sektor knapp ein Viertel der Gesamtausgaben, davon gaben die Privathaushalte 8 Mrd. € direkt (out-of-pocket) für Gesundheit aus. Die private Krankenversicherung kam...

There is a great variation in the development of private health insurance (PHI) between European countries. Using data provided by Insurance Europe, World Bank and Standard and Poor's for 30 European countries, our research investigates the main factors influencing the size of these markets. In...

This paper analyses the relationship between locus of control (LOC) and the demand for supplementary health insurance. Drawing on longitudinal data from Germany, we find robust evidence that individuals having an internal LOC are more likely to take up supplementary private health insurance...

Among health care systems with both public and private elements (such as in the US and Germany), an important question is whether the type of health insurance exerts an impact on workers' careers. We exploit the unique German case of a two-tier health care system to analyze whether opting out of...

This paper analyses the relationship between locus of control (LOC) and the demand for supplementary health insurance. Drawing on longitudinal data from Germany, we find robust evidence that individuals having an internal LOC are more likely to take up supplementary private health insurance...

This paper analyses the relationship between locus of control (LOC) and the demand for supplementary health insurance. Drawing on longitudinal data from Germany, we find robust evidence that individuals having an internal LOC are more likely to take up supplementary private health insurance...

The market of private health insurance is characterised by high level of consumer inertia. Low consumer activity is probably linked to product complexity, abundance of choice options and low consumer understanding. These factors may overwhelm consumers and reduce willingness to engage with the...

In theory, guaranteed renewable (GR) insurance contracts can efficiently protect individuals against reclassification risk without the negative side effects of price regulation, such as adverse selection. For these contracts to work properly, consumers must pay front-loaded premiums when healthy...

The Australian government pays $6.5 billion per year in rebates to encourage Australians to purchase private health insurance (PHI) and an additional $3 billion to cover private inpatient medical services. What is the justification for large government subsidies to a private industry when all...

In countries with dual public and private healthcare systems, individuals are often incentivised to purchase private health insurance through subsidies and penalty. We use administrative data from Australia to study how high-income earners respond on both the intensive and extensive margins to...

Background Lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) have a common goal to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) through voluntary health insurance schemes. This is important to improve access to healthcare services and ensure fnancial protection for all by reducing out-of-pocket expenditures....

The present paper outlines measures of disparity in healthcare access and health outcomes, drawing from the standardized metrics introduced in one related study (Bancalari et al., 2023). Beveridge countries seem to be less unequal than Bismarckian countries. Yet, there is no strong pattern in...

How do patient and provider incentives affect the provision of long-term care? Our analysis of 551 thousand nursing home stays yields three main insights. First, Medicaid-covered residents prolong their stays instead of transitioning to community-based care due to limited cost-sharing. Second,...

In countries with dual public and private healthcare systems, individuals are often incentivised to purchase private health insurance through subsidies and penalty. We use administrative data from Australia to study how high-income earners respond on both the intensive and extensive margins to...

A feature of many insurance markets is that they combine vertical differentiation (all consumers prefer high to low-coverage policies) and adverse selection (high cost customers prefer high-coverage plans). Building on Novshek and Sonnenschein (1978) and Azevedo and Gottlieb (2017), this paper...

Premiums and eligibility for health insurance may cause a "marriage lock," in which couples stay married for the sake of maintaining health insurance coverage. By using the Health and Retirement Study for adults aged 60-70, I examine whether employer-based health insurance coverage for the...

How do patient and provider incentives affect the provision of long-term care? Our analysis of 551 thousand nursing home stays yields three main insights. First, Medicaid-covered residents prolong their stays instead of transitioning to community-based care due to limited cost-sharing. Second,...