Private Voluntary Health Insurance in Development : Friend or Foe?
This volume presents findings of a World Bank review of the existing and potential role of private voluntary health insurance in low- and middle-income countries and is the third volume in a series of reviews of health care financing. Also, this vo...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Publication |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2007/01/7299487/private-voluntary-health-insurance-development-friend-or-foe http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6641 |
| Summary: | This volume presents findings of a World
Bank review of the existing and potential role of private
voluntary health insurance in low- and middle-income
countries and is the third volume in a series of reviews of
health care financing. Also, this volume is about managing
risk. Not the risk of national or man-made disasters but the
risk of illness. The developing world is plagued by many of
the historical scourges of poverty: infectious disease,
disability, and premature death. As countries pass through
demographic and epidemiological transition, they face a new
wave of health challenges from chronic diseases and
accidents. In this respect, illness has both a predictable
and an unpredictable dimension. Contributors to this volume
emphasize that the public sector has an important role to
play in the health sector, but they demonstrate that the
private sector also plays a role in a context in which
private spending and delivery of health services often
composes 80 percent of total health expenditure. Managing
risks in the private sector begins at the household level.
Private voluntary health insurance is merely an extension of
such nongovernmental ways to deal with the risk of illness
and its impoverishing effects in low- and middle-income
countries. The authors examine frameworks for analyzing
health financing and health insurance. They conclude that
most studies are hampered by lack of data on the impact of
private voluntary health insurance on broad social goals,
such as financial protection. They find no overall consensus
on the impact of voluntary health insurance on public health
activities or on the quality, innovation, and efficiency of
personal health services. |
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