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Health insurance system financing reforms in the Netherlands, Germany and France: Repercussions for coverage and redistribution?
Author(s) -
Turquet Pascale
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international social security review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1468-246X
pISSN - 0020-871X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-246x.2011.01418.x
Subject(s) - redistribution (election) , diversification (marketing strategy) , german , social insurance , health insurance , competition (biology) , health care , business , income protection insurance , public economics , private insurance , economics , finance , economic policy , economic growth , political science , market economy , ecology , archaeology , marketing , politics , biology , law , history
For a number of years, the Dutch, German and French health insurance systems have been attempting to contain costs and diversify their sources of finance, which traditionally have come mainly from social contributions. Diversification may involve broader‐based public finance, as well as greater recourse to private resources and operators. In the case of the Netherlands and Germany, the reforms go hand in hand with efforts to introduce competition between health insurance bodies. In France, private complementary insurance has become indispensable for adequate access to health care. However, these measures have repercussions for redistribution, which social assistance programmes have difficulty in addressing.