HEALTH INSURANCE, OR OUR FINANCIAL RELATION TO THE PUBLIC.

Voluntary Public Health Insurance

We look at the consequences of allowing public health insurance (PuHI) to be voluntary when its coverage can be supplemented in the market. PuHI redistributes with respect to risk and income, and the market is affected by adverse selection. We argue that making PuHI voluntary does not lead to its collapse since there are always individuals participating in it. Additionally, in some cases, a vol...

Public Health Insurance in Japan

Japanese universal public health insurance which is largely based on a fee-for-services payment system has functioned well so far. There are several key factors for the success of this program such as social solidarity and infrastructure for the utilization review. However, people's demand on health services has increased over the years and as a result, reform in under way to provide more diver...

National health insurance or incremental reform: aim high, or at our feet?

Single-payer national health insurance could cover the uninsured and upgrade coverage for most Americans without increasing costs; savings on insurance overhead and other bureaucracy would fully offset the costs of improved care. In contrast, proposed incremental reforms are projected to cover a fraction of the uninsured, at great cost. Moreover, even these projections are suspect; reforms of t...

Our Food: Packaging & Public Health

Financial viability of district mutual health insurance.

Healthcare systems in many developing countries do not have enough healthcare providers or healthcare facilities to service their populations. In recent times, nations and groups are setting up health insurance programmes as one way of addressing the myriad of problems that confront healthcare delivery. Develtere et al., discussed the role of mutual health insurance in helping address the situa...