Recently several experts have proposed to replace the existing social health insurance revenue system by income-independent per capita contributions. Therefore the authors of this paper present different estimates for alternative forms of per capita contributions. The next step of the analysis...

This analysis shows that hardship and not hardship cases respectively reject clear differences both at the demand and at the expenditures for pharmaceuticals financed by the statutory health insurance. Hardship cases without exemption regulations would be burden therefore by enormous...

There is an ongoing debate on the reduction of expenditure of mandatory health insurance in Germany. Dental services for crowns, bridges and dentures are suggested to be excluded from the basic package. Here we discuss whether there will be undersupply for these services on the private health...

There is an ongoing debate on the phenomenon of physician induced demand. The question is whether the equilibrating forces of supply and demand are effective in the medical sector leading to a state of Pareto-optimality. The issue of improved availability vs. induced demand has not been solved...

The law for the Modernisation of the Social Health Insurance System 2003 ("GKV-Modernisierungsgesetz – GMG" 2003) provides, among other measures, for a noticeable increase in co-payments and also for a reduction of possibilities for claiming exemptions from co-payments. Against this backdrop,...

Health care systems in developed countries worldwide are not only faced with costs of new medical technologies but they are also faced with growing propor-tions of elderly people who by far induce largest demands of health services. Spending on health care is now up to 10% or more of gross...