Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Public reporting of hospital quality of care could improve the care patients receive through at least two pathways. First, patients (or their physicians) could send patients to higher quality hospitals (i.e., the selection pathway). Alternatively, hospitals themselves could have behavioral responses to the metrics and may improve quality of care in response to public reporting…
Typically, we look at how changes in cost sharing affect patient demand. However, rules regarding patient cost sharing also influence life sciences firms’ decisions about what price they should use for their products. A paper by Herr and Suppliet (2017) looks at the effect of changing cost-sharing rules in Germany in their latest paper. The…
Will the Affordable Care Act’s reduced reimbursement rates for providers serving the publicly insured make the U.S. look like Germany? Maybe. Let me explain why. Background on health insurance in Germany A JHE study by Hendrik Schmitz provides some insight regarding the German health insurance system and a reform in 1997. German physicians are remunerated…
Healthy, high-income people in Germany choose private health insurance. Sick, low-income people generally choose public insurance through Germany’s sickness funds. It shouldn’t be surprising risk selection between public and private insurance occurs in Germany. Here’s why: While public premiums [in Germany] are subject to community rating, private premiums are risk rated. Moreover, public premiums are…
In Germany, poor and middle class individuals must use public insurance, but well-off Germans can choose between using public and private insurance. “In Germany, about 90% of the population is publicly insured (Colombo & Tapay, 2004). Buying public insurance is mandatory for dependent employees with a regular employment contract as long as their income does…
Here is my previous review of the German healthcare system. Below is the some additional information on medical care in France based on the book by William Roth. Funding and Insurance An individual joins a sickness funds to receive medical coverage. The sickness funds cover 90% of the population and the remaining 10% uses private insurance.…
Health care in Germany achieves universal health care by mandating that individuals enroll in a sickness fund. The German government requires lower and middle class individuals to enroll in the sickness funds, but richer individuals can opt out and choose to purchase their own private health insurance. Approximated 9% of Germans have supplemental insurance; these…
Europe is known for having single-payer, government provided healthcare. But just because there is significant government involvement in the financing of medical services does not mean that private hospitals are non-existent. An interesting series of post by HealthcareEuropa looks at private hospitals that operate in Bulgaria, Turkey and Germany.
The most significant difference between Germany’s health care system and that of other countries is its use of sickness funds. All Germans with incomes under €46,300 are required to enroll in one of the sickness funds. Those with higher incomes can either join a sickness fund themselves or opt out and instead buy private insurance.…
GigaOM reports on some new Health 2.0 developments in Germany in its article “Health 2.0 Gaining Traction in Germany.” Websites such as Helpster and Imedo are among a number of website which are now rating German physicians. In order to take into account established medical institutions, Imedo is including the physician certification status as part…