The Colombian health care system is a competitive insurance market with a standardized health benefit package (POS). Insurance companies (EPSs) must pay for all services and pharmaceuticals included in the health benefit package and in exchange are given a yearly risk-adjusted capitation payment. This article studies the effect on pharmaceutical prices of two natural experiments that change the...

There are fragmentations in Iran’s health insurance system. Multiple health insurance funds exist, without adequate provisions for transfer or redistribution of cross subsidy among them. Multiple risk pools, including several private secondary insurance schemes, have resulted in a tiered health insurance system with inequitable benefit packages for different segments of the population. Also fra...

This paper analyzes the interaction of direct and indirect risk selection in health insurance markets. It is shown that direct risk selection - using measures unrelated to the benefit package like selective advertising or 'losing' applications of high risk individuals - nevertheless has an influence on the distortions of the benefit package caused by indirect risk selection. Direct risk selecti...

This paper uses individual level data to analyze the effect of changes in the compulsory benefit package of the German statutory health insurance scheme on the demand for private supplementary insurance. In particular, we aim at measuring the effect of excluding dentures from the benefit package in 1997 as well as the effect of re-including them in 1999.A difference-in-differences estimator is ...

This paper uses individual level data to analyze the effect of changes in the compulsory benefit package of the German statutory health insurance scheme on the demand for private supplementary insurance. In particular, we aim at measuring the effect of excluding dentures from the benefit package in 1997 as well as the effect of re-including them in 1999.A difference-in-differences estimator is ...

Many proposed health insurance reforms would establish a federal minimum benefit standard--a baseline set of benefits to ensure that people have adequate coverage and financial protection when they purchase insurance. Currently, benefit mandates are set at the state level; these vary greatly across states and generally target specific areas rather than set an overall standard for what qualifies...

H ealth insurance premiums rise with the generosity of the benefit package. Both public and private sector policymakers are interested in making less-costly health insurance available by offering a bare-bones benefit package.This analysis develops several alternative insurance policies that would cost 30 percent less than a current basic benefit plan and examines the implications of these polic...

there are fragmentations in iran’s health insurance system. multiple health insurance funds exist, without adequate provisions for transfer or redistribution of cross subsidy among them. multiple risk pools, including several private secondary insurance schemes, have resulted in a tiered health insurance system with inequitable benefit packages for different segments of the population. also fra...