Cost-effectiveness analysis often plays an important role in prioritization among different types of public health expenditures. Cost-effectiveness is defined as the maximal health benefits for given expenditures on health care. With a private health sector as a supplement to the public sector,...

The 1998 Spanish reform of the Personal Income Tax eliminated the 15% deduction for private medical expenditures including payments on private health insurance (PHI) policies. To avoid an undesirable increase in the demand for publicly funded health care, tax incentives to buy PHI were not...

Motivated by the current Medicaid eligibility expansion, this paper explores how privately insured hospital patients are affected by an increase in Medicaid patients. A theoretical model shows that an expansion in Medicaid eligibility will reduce the quantity of private patients a hospital...

Rationale: Private health insurance (PHI) covers 45 million people in Brazil, which makes it one of the largest market in the world. It was until recently unregulated, and little information was available on its characteristics and impact. Recently available data make it possible to assess its...

This study examines the effect of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) on the use of health care services among the privately insured non-elderly population. Using data from the 2000 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey, we find that HMO members are not particularly healthier than non-HMO...

In health care systems today, including those of Switzerland and the United States, participants do not necessarily see the big picture of lifetime health costs and quality of life, and in many systems consumers and providers lack the incentives to manage preventative and chronic care to...