eBook

Global marketplace for private health insurance : strength in numbers

Preker, Alexander S, Zweifel, Peter, Schellekens, Onno P

2010,2009

Overview

The development challenges of addressing health problems in low- and middle-income countries are daunting but not insurmountable. There are now known and affordable interventions to deal with many aspects of the HIV/AIDS crisis as well as the continued challenge posed by malaria and other major infectious diseases. Three major development objectives of health insurance in low- and middle income countries are highlighted in this volume: securing sustainable financing for health care providers that serve the health needs of vulnerable populations; providing financial protection against the impoverishing cost of illness; and reducing social exclusion from organized health financing and delivery systems. Private health insurance schemes can address the needs of the poor and other vulnerable populations with appropriate combinations of subsidies, risk pooling, household savings, and user charges. The authors of this book argue in favor of a multipillar approach to health care financing in low- and middle-income countries that combines these instruments in addressing the underlying development objectives described above, while putting a strong emphasis on private voluntary health insurance. In this way, private means can make a significant contribution to public ends.

• Publisher: World Bank,World Bank Publications,The World Bank,Washington, DC: World Bank
• Subject: access to health care / adequate care / Adverse Selection / applicable law / capital requirements / Care Access / chronic diseases / collection of contributions / Community Health / community rating / consumers / Cost Sharing / cost-effectiveness / delivery of health services / Demand for Health / Demand for Insurance / Developing countries / disasters / Drug Administration / Economic aspects / Economics / families / FEASIBILITY STUDIES / financial consequences / Financial Impact / Financial Markets / Financial Protection / financial reporting / financial resources / financial risk / financing health care / Financing methods / formal labor market / Group Insurance / Health Care / Health Care Financing / health care insurance / health care system / Health Economics / Health Expenditure / Health Expenditures / Health Financing / Health Insurance / Health insurance -- Economic aspects -- Developing countries / Health insurance -- economics / Health Insurance Coverage / Health Insurance Industry / Health Insurance Market / health insurance markets / Health Insurance Plans / Health Insurance Regulation / health insurance schemes / health insurance system / health insurers / health maintenance / Health Plan / Health Plan Employer Data / Health Plans / health sector / health service providers / health services / Health Spending / Health System / health systems / Healthcare / Hospitals / income households / inflation / informal sector / informal sector workers / Insurance Arrangements / Insurance companies / Insurance Expenditures / Insurance Markets / Insurance Regulations / Insurance Reserves / insurance systems / Insurance, Health / Insurance, Health--economics / Insurers / International Finance / International market / international organizations / liberalization / Low-Income Countries / market failures / Medical Association / Medical Insurance / medical system / medical technology / Medical treatment / Middle East / Models, Econometric / Moral Hazard / morbidity / mortality / national health / national health service / North Africa / nutrition / Pocket Payment / Pocket Payments / premiums / prepayment schemes / Private Health Insurance / Private Insurance / Private Insurance Markets / private insurers / Private Sector / private spending / Privatization / programs / Public Expenditure / public health / public health care / public health insurance / Public Hospitals / public insurance / public sector / rates / regulatory framework / Reinsurance / risk aversion / Risk Management / Risk Sharing / savings / slums / social capital / social exclusion / social health insurance / Social Insurance / social insurance systems / Solvency / Solvency Requirements / Sub-Saharan Africa / Surgery / walking / Western Europe / workers / World Health
• ISBN: 9780821375075, 0821375075, 9780821376775, 0821376772