Background: This contribution seeks to measure preferences for health insurance in Germany and the Netherlands, using two Discrete Choice Experiments (DCE). Since the Dutch DCE was carried out right after the 2006 health reform, which made citizens explicitly choose a health insurance contract,...

Objectives: In contrast to other countries, surgery still represents the common invasive treatment for varicose veins in Germany. However, radiofrequency ablation, e.g. ClosureFast, becomes more and more popular in other countries due to potential better results and reduced side effects. This...

The paper attempts to answer a very simple question: how does a farm household respond as a unit in the labor market when benefits or health insurance is tied to employer provided jobs. One of the major changes affecting US agriculture has been a decline in the number of farms and an increase in...

Background: Risk attitudes influence decisions made under uncertainty. This paper investigates the association of risk attitudes with the utilization of preventive and general healthcare services, work absence and resulting costs to explore their contribution to the heterogeneity in utilization....

Background: To promote skilled attendance at births and reduce maternal deaths, the government of Ghana introduced the free maternal care policy under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2008. The objective is to eliminate financial barriers associated with the use of services. But...

Background: Prepayments and risk pooling through social health insurance has been advocated by international development organizations. Social health insurance is seen as a mechanism that helps mobilize resources for health, pool risk, and provide more access to health care services for the...

Background: Despite the focus of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to bridge healthcare utilisation gap among women in Ghana, recent evidence indicates that most maternal deaths still occur from rural Ghana. The objective of this study was to examine the rural-urban differences in the...

Background: The absolute number of older individuals needing medical care and long-term care (LTC) is increasing globally due to the growing ageing population. However, it is uncertain who and what proportion of the population has access to care. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis...

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection remains one of the major reasons of re-hospitalization among children with congenital heart disease (CHD). This study estimated the cost-effectiveness of palivizumab prophylaxis versus placebo, in Spain, from the societal perspective, using...

Objective: To examine the impact of temporary and permanent weight loss of 10% and 15% on 10-year and lifetime Medicare spending among adults with overweight and obesity aged 65 years and older. Weight loss of this magnitude is consistent with next generation anti-obesity medications recently...