General Introduction -- Economic Rationales for the Design of Health Care Financing Schemes -- The Design of Health Care Financing Schemes in Different Countries -- The Potential for Risk Rating in Competitive Markets for Supplementary Health Insurance: An Empirical Analysis -- Competition and Solidarity in in Health Insurance Markets: An Economic Analysis of the EC Legal Framework -- Risk Selection Via Health Insurance in Universal Mandatory Health Insurance for Basic Services: A Five-Country Comparison -- Conclusions and Discussion.

As a contribution to the search for suitable and sustainable solutions to finance rising medical care expenditures, the book proposes a typology of healthcare financing and insurance schemes, based on the dimensions of basic vs. supplementary services and mandatory vs. voluntary coverage, to analyse the design and the complex interactions between various financing and insurance arrangements in several OECD countries. This study provides a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the financial and organisational structures of different countries’ healthcare financing and insurance schemes. Its main contributions are the development of a novel and rigorous theoretical framework analysing the economic rationales for the optimal design of healthcare financing and insurance schemes, and an empirical and institutional analysis investigating the consequences for efficiency and affordability of the complex interactions between basic and supplementary sources of financing. The distinction between basic and supplementary health care insurance, and how they are regulated, is of fundamental importance to health care financing. This book makes a welcome contribution to the literature on this subject, providing insights into how the problem is addressed in a number of countries. It will be of considerable interest to a wide variety of scholars and practitioners. James RG Butler, Director, Australian Centre for Economic Research on Health (ACERH), The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia This book offers a detailed analysis of supplementary health insurance and its use in several nations. In doing so, it provides important insights into health insurance reform options relevant to nearly every wealthy nation. Alan M. Garber, MD, PhD, Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor and Director, Center for Health Policy and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, Stanford University, USA Francesco Paolucci gives an interesting theoretical overview of the rationale for different systems of health care finance, focusing on the interrelationship between mandatory and supplementary or voluntary systems. He illustrates his theoretical arguments with a revealing empirical analysis, taking into account carefully the specific institutional features of the different countries. His analysis is interesting for academics as well as for policy-makers. Erik Schokkaert, Department of Economics, KULeuven, Belgium