State high-risk pools: an update on the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association.

State health insurance high-risk pools are a key component of the US health care system's safety net, because they provide health insurance to the "uninsurable." In 2007, 34 states had individual high-risk pools, which covered more than 200 000 people at a total cost of $1.8 billion. We examine the experience of the largest and oldest pool in the nation, the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association, to document key issues facing state high-risk pools in enrollment and financing. We also considered the role and future of high-risk pools in light of national health care finance reform.

Group insurance: a better deal for most people than individual plans.

This paper compares health plans currently available on the individual market with employer-sponsored plans. Points of comparison include the scope of benefits, cost-sharing provisions, premiums, expected out-of-pocket costs, and actuarial value. We draw from the 2007 KFF/HRET Health Benefits Survey, our own survey of individual-market plans, the MarketScan medical claims database, and a computer simulation of medical claims. We find that in 2007, employment-based plans covered 80 percent of all charges paid by the plan and the member, while individual plans covered 64 percent. For most people, premiums and out-of-pocket costs were more affordable in tax-advantaged employer plans than in individual-market plans. Proposed health reforms would fundamentally alter the plan offerings available to Americans, particularly those offered in the individual market.

Does high-risk pool coverage meet the needs of people at risk for disability?

State high-risk insurance pools serve people denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. With benefit plans modeled on the individual market, these pools generally require higher out-of-pocket expenditures and provide fewer benefits than employer-sponsored plans, while their beneficiaries have very intensive needs. We profile 416 working adults enrolled in a state high-risk pool and document their health conditions and health care utilization. High-risk pool and federal employee benefits are compared to assess insurance structure and implications for health and disability outcomes.

Sistema Nacional de Salud: externalización, integración y custodia de competencias y activos esenciales / National Health Care System: externalization, integration and custody of competences and essential assets

Es un criterio bien aceptado en las ciencias de la empresa que las acciones orientadas a fortalecer la integración de procesos de valor estratégico y de competencias centrales contribuyen a sostener en el tiempo las ventajas competitivas, y por el contrario, se socavan los cimientos organizativos cuando las decisiones vulneran este principio. De hecho, es constatable que la posición distintiva y de vanguardia del sector sanitario público se ha basado históricamente en este fundamento que ha contribuido esencialmente a consolidar sus redes de servicios integrados en la cadena de valor asistencial. Este trabajo reflexiona sobre las posibles consecuencias que determinadas iniciativas de política sanitaria tendentes a la externalización y/o privatización de centros sanitarios, servicios y procesos nucleares, así como conocimientos operacionales especializados, pudieran tener sobre los microsistemas clínicos, las competencias esenciales de la organización, los modelos de experiencia y aprendizaje en comunidades de prácticas profesionales, el acervo cultural y ético de servicio público, así como en el capital intelectual y social de la organización. Frente a la ortodoxia burocrática y a las estrategias políticas de desintegración de las redes de servicios sanitarios públicos, se plantea potenciar una tercera vía reformista, afortunadamente ya iniciada en algunas Comunidades Autónomas, que apuesta por el diseño organizativo horizontal e integrado, la gestión por competencias esenciales y procesos estratégicos, la flexibilización de las políticas de personal orientadas a la evaluación de resultados, la gestión de recursos sustentada en evidencias, la cooperación competitiva y el buen gobierno institucional y social

Business sciences have well established that competitive advantages become sustainable when process within the value chain and core competencies are integrated, and the foundations of the organization are at risk when these principles are violated. Empirically, the distinctive position of the public healthcare sector is historically determined by the integration of their networks of services alongside the value chain of healthcare. This paper analyses the consequences of some policies of externalization and/or privatization of healthcare centres or services and core processes, as well as specialized operational know ledges, regarding the clinical micro-systems, the essential competencies of the organization, the experience and learning models of community of practices professional groups, culture and public ethos, and the intellectual and social capital of the institution. Overcoming bureaucratic orthodoxy and disintegrative policies, the alternative envisaged is a "third way", backed by some initial experiences in Autonomous Communities, aiming to an organizational design more horizontal, integrative, managed by competencies and core processes, with flexibility in human resources, outcome-oriented, evidence based, searching the "competitive co-operation" and the good governance of the institutions and the society

Group premiums in micro health insurance experiences from Tanzania.

OBJECTIVE: The main objective was to assess how group premiums can help poor people in the informal economy prepay for health care services. METHODS: A comparative approach was adopted to study four groups of informal economy operators (cobblers, welders, carpenters, small scale market retailers) focusing on a method of prepayment which could help them access health care services. Two groups with a total of 714 operators were organized to prepay for health care services through a group premium, while the other two groups with a total of 702 operators were not organized to prepay through this approach. They prepaid through individual premium, each operator paying from his or her sources. Data on the four groups which lived in the same city was collected through a questionnaire and focus group discussions. Data collected was focused on health problems, health seeking behaviour and payment for health care services. Training of all the groups on prepaid health care financing based on individual based premium payment and group based premium payment was done. Groups were then free to choose which method to use in prepaying for health care. Prepayment through the two methods was then observed over a period of three years. Trends of membership attrition and retention were documented for both approaches. RESULTS: Data collected showed that the four groups were similar in many respects. These similarities included levels of education, housing, and social services such as water supplies, health problems, family size and health seeking behaviour. At the end of a period of three years 76% of the members from the two groups who chose group premium payment were still members of the prepayment health scheme and were receiving health care. For the two groups which opted for individual premium payment only 15% of their members were still receiving health care services at the end of three years. CONCLUSION: Group premium is a useful tool in improving accessibility to health care services in the poorer segments of the population especially the informal economy operators

Risk pooling and regulation: policy and reality in today's individual health insurance market.

Analysis of new data on the relationship between and premiums and coverage in the individual insurance market and health risk shows that actual premiums paid for individual insurance are much less than proportional to risk, and risk levels have a small effect on obtaining coverage. States limiting risk rating in individual insurance display lower premiums for high risks than other states, but such rate regulation leads to an increase in the total number of uninsured people. The effect on risk pooling is small because of the large amount of risk pooling in unregulated individual insurance.

The 'graying' of group health insurance.

We examine differential declines in private insurance by income and age. We show that older, higher-income people in working families are more likely to retain private coverage as premiums rise, and we project these effects on future coverage rates. The analysis suggests that trends are leading to the "graying" of the employment-based health insurance system, where older, higher-income people get private health insurance, and others increasingly have public coverage or go without. These changes raise questions about the private health care system's ability to pool health risks. Population aging could interact with rising premiums and place additional pressure on an already strained employment-based health insurance system.

Financing Mental Health Care in Spain: Context and critical issues

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Background: Financing and the way in which funds are then allocated are key issues in health policy. They can act as an incentive or barrier to system reform , can priorities certain types or sectors of care and have long term consequences for the planning and delivery of services. The way in which these issues can impact on the funding of mental health services across Europe has been a key task of the Mental Health Economics European Network. (MHEEN) This paper draws on information prepared for MHEEN and provides an analysis of the context and the main issues related to mental health financing in Spain. Methods: A structured questionnaire developed by the MHEEN group was used to assess the pattern of financing, eligibility and coverage for mental healthcare. In Spain contacts were made with the Mental Health agencies of the 17 Autonomous Communities (ACs), and available mental health plans and annual reports were reviewed. A direct collaboration was set up with four ACs (Madrid, Navarre, Andalusia, Catalonia). Results: In Spain, like many other European countries mental healthcare is an integral part of the general healthcare with universal coverage funded by taxation. Total health expenditure accounted for 7.7 percents of GDP in 2003 (public health expenditure was 5.6 percents of GDP). Although the actual percentage expended in mental care is not known and estimates are unreliable, approximately 5 percents of total health expenditure can be attributed to mental health. Moreover what is often overlooked is that many services have been shifted from the health to the social care sector as part of the reform process. Social care is discretionary, and provides only limited coverage. This level of expenditure also appears low by European standards, accounting for just 0.6 percents of GDP. Comments: In spite of its policy implications, little is known about mental healthcare financing in Spain. Comparisons of expenditure for mental health across the ACs are problematic, making it difficult to assess inequalities in access to services across the country. The limited data available on mental healthcare expenditure suggests that level of funding for mental health is low compared with many of the EU-15 countries. This may indicate inefficient and inequitable funding given the significant contribution of mental disorders to the overall burden of ill health. Attention needs to be directed to redressing both the information deficit and also in using a range of financing mechanisms to promote greater investment in mental health (AU)

Declining subscriptions to the Maliando Mutual Health Organisation in Guinea-Conakry (West Africa): what is going wrong?

Mutual Health Organisations (MHOs) are a type of community health insurance scheme that are being developed and promoted in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1998, an MHO was organised in a rural district of Guinea to improve access to quality health care. Households paid an annual insurance fee of about US$2 per individual. Contributions were voluntary. The benefit package included free access to all first line health care services (except for a small co-payment), free paediatric care, free emergency surgical care and free obstetric care at the district hospital. Also included were part of the cost of emergency transport to the hospital. In 1998, the MHO covered 8% of the target population, but, by 1999, the subscription rate had dropped to about 6%. In March 2000, focus groups were held with members and non-members of the scheme to find out why subscription rates were so low. The research indicated that a failure to understand the scheme does not explain these low rates. On the contrary, the great majority of research subjects, members and non-members alike, acquired a very accurate understanding of the concepts and principles underlying health insurance. They value the system's re-distributive effects, which goes beyond household, next of kin or village. The participants accurately point out the sharp differences that exist between traditional financial mechanisms and the principle of health insurance, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of both. The ease with which risk-pooling is accepted as a financial mechanism which addresses specific needs demonstrates that it is not, per se, necessary to build health insurance schemes on existing or traditional systems of mutual aid. The majority of the participants consider the individual premium of 2 US dollars to be fair. There is, however, a problem of affordability for many poor and/or large families who cannot raise enough money to pay the subscription for all household members in one go. However, the main reason for the lack of interest in the scheme, is the poor quality of care offered to members of the MHO at the health centre.

Reduction of catastrophic health care expenditures by a community-based health insurance scheme in Gujarat, India: current experiences and challenges.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the Self Employed Women's Association's Medical Insurance Fund in Gujarat in terms of insurance coverage according to income groups, protection of claimants from costs of hospitalization, time between discharge and reimbursement, and frequency of use. METHODS: One thousand nine hundred and thirty claims submitted over six years were analysed. FINDINGS: Two hundred and fifteen (11%) of 1927 claims were rejected. The mean household income of claimants was significantly lower than that of the general population. The percentage of households below the poverty line was similar for claimants and the general population. One thousand seven hundred and twelve (1712) claims were reimbursed: 805 (47%) fully and 907 (53%) at a mean reimbursement rate of 55.6%. Reimbursement more than halved the percentage of catastrophic hospitalizations (>10% of annual household income) and hospitalizations resulting in impoverishment. The average time between discharge and reimbursement was four months. The frequency of submission of claims was low (18.0/1000 members per year: 22-37% of the estimated frequency of hospitalization). CONCLUSIONS: The findings have implications for community-based health insurance schemes in India and elsewhere. Such schemes can protect poor households against the uncertain risk of medical expenses. They can be implemented in areas where institutional capacity is too weak to organize nationwide risk-pooling. Such schemes can cover poor people, including people and households below the poverty line. A trade off exists between maintaining the scheme's financial viability and protecting members against catastrophic expenditures. To facilitate reimbursement, administration, particularly processing of claims, should happen near claimants. Fine-tuning the design of a scheme is an ongoing process - a system of monitoring and evaluation is vital.

Community rating in health insurance and different benefit packages.

This paper presents a model of a competitive health insurance market with two risk types and two health benefits. In the benchmark case, community rating insurers (CRIs) are only allowed to offer the basic benefit. The additional benefit is sold by risk rating insurers (RRIs). It is shown that low risk types can only be better off at the expense of high risk types if CRIs are allowed to offer the additional benefit and no additional measures are taken. However, high risk types can be made better off if CRIs must offer the additional benefit or if community rating health insurers offering the additional benefit are subsidized while those selling only the basic benefit are taxed.

Alternative health insurance schemes: a welfare comparison.

In this paper, we present a simple model of health insurance with asymmetric information, where we compare two alternative ways of organizing the insurance market. Either as a competitive insurance market, where some risks remain uninsured, or as a compulsory scheme, where however, the level of reimbursement of loss is to be determined by majority decision. In a simple welfare comparison, the compulsory scheme may in certain environments yield a solution which is inferior to that obtained in the market. We further consider the situation where the compulsory scheme may be supplemented by voluntary competitive insurance; this situation turns out to be at least as good as either of the alternatives.

Private sector unlikely to follow Medicare lead in providing health plan disenrollment comparisons.

BACKGROUND: There have been substantial efforts to improve the measurement and reporting of comparative quality information. A three-stage effort to develop comparative voluntary disenrollment measures for private health insurance plans is described. The literature on disenrollment and how key groups might use disenrollment information is reviewed; the development of a comparative survey of disenrollment is described; reasons employers, purchasing coalitions, and plans were ultimately unwilling or unable to sponsor the survey are delineated; and implications of these findings are discussed. DATA AND METHODS: Methods used to develop the survey included review of existing literature on disenrollment, review of extant disenrollee surveys, cognitive testing, and expert review of the survey. Informal and formal interviews were conducted to assess the feasibility of different sponsors. RESULTS: A disenrollment survey instrument that covered areas of common interest to consumers, purchasers, and plans could be developed, but sponsors to test the collection and reporting of these data could not be recruited. This was due to four interrelated factors: technical challenges in developing appropriate samples, wide variation in resources and capabilities of purchasers and plans, the perception that the costs of the survey outweighed the benefits of comparative information on disenrollment to the different sponsors, and the absence of strong demand from purchasers, regulators, or consumers to motivate plans to collect or report comparative information on disenrollment. IMPLICATIONS: Several major barriers must be overcome before disenrollment information can become a component of comparative health care quality measures for the privately insured.

Predicting response to regulatory change in the small group health insurance market: the case of association health plans and HealthMarts.

Lack of health insurance continues to be a concern for many people, even among those who are employed, and employees of small firms are much less likely to be insured than employees of larger firms. For several years, the U.S. Congress has considered legislation that would establish two new vehicles for offering health insurance coverage to small employers: association health plans (AHPs) and HealthMarts. In this paper, we present a model for estimating the impact the new entities would have on coverage and premiums in the small group health insurance market. The model produces a range of estimates based on assumptions, among others, about demand for insurance among small firms and their willingness to switch to less expensive, less generous benefit plans. We estimate that approximately 4.6 million people would obtain coverage through AHPs and HealthMarts, but fewer than half a million of them would be newly insured (based on 1999 population figures). Premiums would increase slightly for firms that continued to purchase coverage in the traditional market.

Effects of "second generation" small group health insurance market reforms, 1993 to 1997.

In the mid-1990s, several state legislatures enacted a "second generation" of small group health insurance reforms that required guaranteed issue of all products and prohibited the use of health as a rating factor. We use data from two large employer surveys to compare the behavior of small business in nine states that adopted these reforms between 1993 and 1997 to the behavior of small business in 11 states and the District of Columbia, where neither of these small group health insurance market reforms existed prior to 1997 (N = 8,465 in 1993; N = 12,219 in 1997). Our analyses focus on several outcomes: health insurance offer and enrollment rates in any employer plan, and in an HMO plan; turnover in offer decisions; and premiums, variability in premiums, and the rate of change in premiums. Overall, we find no effect of small group reform on any of the outcomes; the sign of the effect is not consistent across reform states, the estimates rarely attain statistical significance, and they show no consistent pattern across the outcomes within each state. Therefore, predictions of the harm these regulations might cause to the market have not come to pass. On the other hand, proponents' hopes for a solution to low coverage rates among small businesses have not materialized either.

The effect of a redistribution system for health care for the elderly on the financial performance of health insurance societies in Japan.

Health care for the elderly in Japan is financed through a pool to which all insurers contribute. We analyzed insurers' financial data to evaluate this redistribution system. Cost sharing affected financial performance substantially. The current formula for cost-sharing redistributes elderly health care costs unequally and should be changed.