Summary |
The purchase of health insurance has become “ritualized” behavior. It serves to reduce tension between providers and patients, sector of the class structure, and members of the same kinship unit. Health insurance may not only have important psychological effects for individuals. (i.e. reducing tensions), it may also have important collective consequences for society. Thus, health insurance is an institution that promoter integration and cohesion. The significance of insurance to modern societies is not only economic and financial, but also has important social utility.
Social Functions and Economic Aspects of Health Insurance start out with a review of moral hazards and potential benefits derived from health care. The core of the book is an analysis of health insurance as a social institution including why people pay so much for coverage, the distortion of the marginal economic utility functions by health insurance, and the analysis of health insurance from the perspective of theories of social exchange.
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