Australia’s existing health-financing arrangements lead to partial duplication in coverage for private health insurance (PHI) holders. The two options to remove duplication are: 1) allowing individuals to ‘opt out’ from Medicare either (a) by purchasing PHI or (b) by self-insuring via medical savings accounts or other pre-payment arrangements; 2) confining PHI to the coverage of supplementary services. This paper argues in favour of Option 1(a), and argues that from an efficiency perspective PHI should be fully substitutive of Medicare coverage (that is, ‘opting out’ should be allowed); community rating should be replaced by premium bands; and the 30–40 per cent ad valorem subsidy for PHI should be replaced by ex-ante risk-adjusted subsidies.
Francesco Paolucci, Butler James, van de Ven Wynand (2011). Removing duplication in public/private health insurance in Australia: opting out with risk-adjusted subsidies?. AGENDA, 18(2), 1-11.
Removing duplication in public/private health insurance in Australia: opting out with risk-adjusted subsidies?
PAOLUCCI, FRANCESCO;
2011
Abstract
Australia’s existing health-financing arrangements lead to partial duplication in coverage for private health insurance (PHI) holders. The two options to remove duplication are: 1) allowing individuals to ‘opt out’ from Medicare either (a) by purchasing PHI or (b) by self-insuring via medical savings accounts or other pre-payment arrangements; 2) confining PHI to the coverage of supplementary services. This paper argues in favour of Option 1(a), and argues that from an efficiency perspective PHI should be fully substitutive of Medicare coverage (that is, ‘opting out’ should be allowed); community rating should be replaced by premium bands; and the 30–40 per cent ad valorem subsidy for PHI should be replaced by ex-ante risk-adjusted subsidies.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
