Summary |
Developing countries face an enormous challenge balancing competing demands for scarce resources available to the public sector. Mobilizing financial resources for the health sector at a time of global economic turmoil is even more daunting. More than 100 million of the poor have already fallen back into poverty as a result of the financial crisis. Millions more are at risk of following them. It is precisely at such a time-when the poorest and most vulnerable groups are at greatest risk-that new and innovative financing mechanisms are most needed.
The research for this volume shows that private voluntary health insurance (PVHI) can contribute to social goals like other forms of health insurance. When properly designed and coupled with subsidies, it contributes to the well-being of poor and middle-class households, not just the rich. And it can contribute to development goals such as improved access to health care, better financial protection against the cost of illness, and reduced social exclusion.
The world of technical experts and policy wonks is divided into two camps. One vilifies private voluntary health insurance as an evil to be avoided at all cost. Its constituency claims that such insurance leads to overconsumption of care, escalating costs, shunting of scarce resources away from the poor, cream skimming, adverse selection, moral hazard, and an inequitable, U.S.-styled health care system.
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