Private health insurance policies in Israel: a report on the 2012 Dead Sea Conference

Medical loss ratio as a potential regulatory tool in the Israeli healthcare system

BACKGROUND The growth of the private health insurance sector in Western countries, which is characterized by information deficiencies and limited competition, necessitates the implementation of effective regulatory tools. One measure which is widely used is the medical loss ratio (MLR). Our objective was to analyze how MLR is applied as a regulatory measure in the Israeli voluntary health insur...

Reflections on the role of less-than-comprehensive (exclusionary) private health insurance hospital products in the Australian healthcare system.

The number of people in Australia that are currently covered by a hospital private health insurance product continues to rise every quarter. In September 2010, for the first time since the introduction of the public universal social insurance scheme, Medicare, more than 10million persons in Australia are covered by private health insurance. Although the number of persons covered by private heal...

Report on First Iranian International Conference on Women’s Health Held June 14-15, 2012 in Shiraz, Iran

Does it Matter if Your Health Insurer is For-Profit? Effects of Ownership on Premiums, Insurance Coverage, and Medical Spending Leemore Dafny Northwestern University and NBER

For-profit insurers account for half of private health insurance in the U.S., notwithstanding concerns about the quality and price of their policies. Using a national panel dataset from 1997-2009 encompassing ~10 million employer-insured lives per year, we study the effects of conversions of Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates in 11 states (and 28 distinct geographic markets) on employer-spon...

Do For-Profit Insurers Charge Higher Premiums? Leemore Dafny Northwestern University and NBER

For-profit insurers account for half of private health insurance in the U.S., notwithstanding concerns that they deliver lower-quality, higher-priced policies. We explore the relationship between ownership and employer-sponsored insurance premiums, medical loss ratios, and uninsurance rates. Using a national panel dataset encompassing ~10 million lives per year, we study the effects of conversi...