Problem/Question to be Addressed: During the 1990s, government has introduced free choice of sickness funds and a new risk-adjustment scheme in the social health insurance scheme of Germany. Price competition is supposed to increase incentives for sickness funds to act as prudent buyers of health services on behalf of their enrollees. A crucial precondition for effective price competition is th...

Decision-making for medicines to be accepted in Iran's public health insurance reimbursement list is a complex process and involves factors, which should be considered in applying a coverage for medicine costs. These processes and factors are not wholly assessed, while assessment of these factors is an essential need for getting a transparent and evidence-based approach toward medicine reimburs...

BACKGROUND An estimated one fifth of all U.S. adult smokers receive health benefits through insurance plans administered by Taft-Hartley Health and Welfare Funds. Most funds do not offer comprehensive tobacco-cessation services to fund participants despite evidence that doing so would be cost effective and save lives. PURPOSE This paper examines the decision-making processes of Minnesota-base...

as shown by labour unrest, has deteriorated. Patrick Jenkin, Secretary of State for the Social Services, has warned that doctors, nurses, hospitals, and clinics must begin to be protected from the rising demand for health services and that the public must be educated to lower its expectations for health care.' Concerned about the pressure of increasing health care costs on tax resources, the Go...

Background Strategic purchasing in healthcare services is a key component in improving health system performance, and it has been one of the most important issues in health system reform around the world, especially Europe in the last decade. Iran health system and insurance, although sometimes considered the issue of strategic purchasing goals, has not been made possible to achieve or even to ...

This paper describes the complex Greek health insurance system in 2011 and how it funds some aspects of oral health care for the population. It explains how different aspects of oral health care for different groups in Greek society are funded by insurance schemes or the national health system (ESY) or purely by direct (out-of-pocket) payments from patients to dentists. It then describes the Gr...

This paper focuses on the switching behaviour of enrolees in the Swiss basic health insurance system. Even though the new Federal Law on Social Health Insurance (LAMal) was implemented in 1996 to promote competition among health insurers in basic insurance, there is limited evidence of premium convergence within cantons. This indicates that competition has not been effective so far, and reveals...

OBJECTIVE To promote managed competition in Dutch health insurance, the insured are now able to change health insurers. They can choose a health insurer with a low flat-rate premium, the best supplementary insurance and/or the best service. As we do not know why people prefer one health insurer to another, we investigated their reasons for selecting their health insurer and assessed the importa...