This paper provides a primer on benefit incidence analysis (BIA) for macroeconomists and a new data set on the benefit incidence of education and health spending covering 56 countries over 1960-2000, representing a significant improvement in quality and coverage over existing compilations. The...

Federal Health Secretary Rösler deems a reform of the wage-related contribution system in German social health insurance (GKV) his most important project for the next 4 years. Indeed such a reform would greatly enhance competition in the GKV system. However, other topics are equally important...

The public health expenses seem to properly mirror the development level of acountry. The purpose of this paper is to study the evolution of the public health expenses inthe world and in our country. The efficiency of the public health care activity is furtherappreciated through a series of...

This paper compares the design features and implementation of the social health insurance (SHI) for the poor programs of the Philippines and Vietnam. The National Health Insurance Program-Sponsored Program of the Philippines and the Health Care Fund for the Poor Program of Vietnam both intend to...

Poverty risk is most marked for children, displaced persons and returnees, unemployed, and people with low education. Basic goals of the macroeconomic framework of the mid-term development strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina are to reduce the overall public expenditures, lower the public debt,...

Reducing the impact of insurance market failures with regulations such as community-rated premiums, standardized benefit packages and open enrolment, yield limited impact because they create room for selection bias. The Colombian social health insurance system started a market approach in 1993...

This paper aims to provide an overview of the social health insurance scheme in Vietnam, including historical development and current policy issues. It shows that the scheme has significantly contributed to the impressive progresses of the country’s health sector, but it also will face a...

This contribution seeks to answer two related questions. First, what is the purpose of social health insurance? Or put in slightly different terms, what are the reasons for social (or public) health insurance to exist, even to dominate private health insurance in most developed countries? And...

This paper shows that social security, as the main health care system, is based on principles aimed at the compulsory coverage of all citizens, who are allowed accessibility to a certain package of services. The financial balance between the amount of contributions received and expenditures must...