Health financing mechanisms
Private health insurance
In private health insurance, premiums are paid directly from employers, associations, individuals and families to insurance companies, which pool risks across their membership base. Private insurance includes policies sold by commercial for profit firms, non-profit companies, and community health insurers. Generally private insurance is voluntary in contrast to social insurance programs that tend to be compulsory.
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Voluntary health insurance in the European Union
pdf, 847kb
Elias Mossialos and Sarah Thomson (2004). European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
However, in some countries private insurance may also be compulsory for certain segments of the population (for example the formal, employed sector).
The article and the discussion paper below analyse how private health insurance is being used today, particularly in lower income countries.
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Private health insurance: implications for developing countries (Bulletin of the WHO)
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Private health insurance: implications for developing countries
pdf, 449kb
The discussion paper below analyses how private health insurance can best be regulated to serve the public interest, with implications for its development in lower income countries.
See below for an article in Health and Ageing No12/April 2005