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The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of empirical evidence on the labour market effects of health insurance from the supply side.

The study covers the largest peer-reviewed and working paper databases for labour economics and health studies. These include Web of Science, Google Scholar, Pubmed and the most popular economics working paper sources such as NBER, ECONSTOR, IDEAS, IZA, SSRN, World Bank Working Paper Series. The authors follow the PRISMA 2009 protocol for systematic reviews.

The collection includes 63 studies. The outcomes of interest are the number of hours worked, the probability of employment, self-employment and the level of economic formalisation. The authors find that the current literature is vastly concentrated on the USA. Spousal coverage in the USA is associated with reduced labour supply of secondary earners. The effect of Medicaid in the USA on the labour supply of its recipients is ambiguous. The employment-coverage link is an important determinant of the labour supply of people with health problems and self-employment decisions. Universal coverage may create either an incentive or a disincentive to work depending on the design of the system. Finally, evidence on the relationship between health insurance and the level of economic formalisation in developing countries is fragmented and limited.

This study reviews the existing literature on the labour market effects of health insurance from the supply side. The authors find a large knowledge gap in emerging economies where health coverage is expanding. The authors also highlight important literature gaps that need to be filled in different themes of the topic.

This is the first systematic review on the topic which is becoming increasingly relevant for policy makers in developing countries where health coverage is expanding.

This study evaluates whether sociodemographic characteristics, political affiliation, family-related circumstances, self-reported health status, and access to health insurance affect public opinion toward the current US health-care system. Opinions about the health-care system were measured in terms of consumer confidence and perceived need for health-care reform. Data come from the 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), a nationwide survey of 1,000 respondents. All data were collected in November 2008, thus providing a useful alternative to volatile polling data because they were collected prior to and are thus immune to the polarized tone of the debates that have occurred over the past few years. Overall, we found that public confidence in medical technology and quality of care were consistently high, while confidence in the affordability of medical care was much lower among respondents. Younger adults, those with poor health, and those without health insurance had particularly low confidence in their ability to pay for health care. Although a strong majority of the population agreed that the US health-care system was in need of major reform, support for particular types of government-sponsored health insurance programs was primarily determined by political affiliation. In an era where a large proportion of the population has little access to health care (due to lack of insurance) and where the US government is facing tremendous opposition to the implementation of major reform efforts, it is useful to understand which subgroups of the population are most confident in the current health-care system and most likely to support reform efforts, as well as those who are most resistant to change given their precarious health needs, their inability to access health care (as a result of insurance or noninsurance), or their political affiliation.

The processual ordering branch of symbolic interaction has long recognized the importance of rhetoric and power to the social constitution of reality. However, little systematic effort has been devoted to probing their intertwined effects in the public policy arena.

The purpose of this paper is to employ the processual ordering perspective to examine the dramaturgical styles used in shaping public policy – expressed in terms of the “public administration” and “realpolitik” forms of rhetoric – among contending political factions as they negotiate mental health public policy. A latent content analysis of the minutes of key U.S. congressional debates, augmented with secondary archival material from the press is employed. It is concluded that both forms of rhetoric play a role in shaping public mental health policy and that both factions modify their rhetorical form as the debate progresses. Those modifications strengthen the position of one faction while weakening that of the other. Theoretical implications are discussed.

The Chinese society has embraced rapid social reforms since the late twentieth century, including educational and healthcare systems. The Chinese Central Government launched an ambitious health reform program in 2009 to improve service quality and provide affordable health services, regardless of individual socio-economic status. Currently, the Chinese social health insurance includes Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance, Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance, and New Cooperative Medical Insurance for rural residents. The purpose of this paper is to measure the association between individual education level and China’s social health insurance scheme following the reform.

Using the latest (2011) China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data and multivariable logistic regression models with cross-sectional design (n=11,960), the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) are reported.

The authors found that education is associated with all social health insurance schemes in China after the reform (p<0.001). Residents with higher educational attainments, such as technical school (OR: 6.64, 95% CI: 5.44–8.13) or university and above (OR: 9.86, 95% CI: 8.14–11.96), are associated with UEBMI, compared with lower-educated individuals.

The Chinese Central Government announced a plan to combine all social health insurance schemes by 2020, except UEBMI, a plan with the most comprehensive financial package. Further research is needed to investigate potential disparities after unification. Policy makers should continue to evaluate China’s universal health coverage and social disparity.

This study is the first to investigate the association between residents’ educational attainment and three social health insurance schemes following the 2009 health reform. The authors suggest that educational attainment is still associated with each social health insurance coverage after the ambitious health reform.

Over the last few decades, information technology (IT) has significantly altered the nature of work and organizational structures in many industries, including health care. The purpose of this analysis is to compare how system-level differences affect IT implementation in health care (HIT) and the implications of these differences for health care equity.

We critically analyzed selected claims concerning the capacity of HIT to provide better care to more individuals at lower costs, thus contributing to health care equity, in the context of current health care reform efforts in the United States. We used the case of HIT implementation in Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system as a contrasting case.

We argue that however much HIT may yield in quality improvements or savings in the context of a universal and publicly financed single payer system, such savings simply cannot be accrued by a system of multiple health plans competing for better customers (i.e., less costly patients) and driven by profit.

It is important to define the level of analysis in debates about the potential of HIT to produce better health care at lower costs and the equity implications of this potential. In these debates, US policy makers should consider the commitment to health care equity that informed the design of Taiwan’s health care system and of HIT implementation in that country. HIT merely provides enabling tools that are of little value without major systemic changes

To our knowledge, the health IT expert literature has overlooked when not ignored the ethical principles informing health care systems, an omission which makes it difficult if not impossible to evaluate the potential of HIT to increase equity in health care.

A dynamic model of the evolution of health for those over the age of 50 is embedded in a structural, econometric model of retirement and saving. Effects of smoking, obesity, alcohol consumption, depression, and other proclivities on medical conditions are analyzed, including hypertension, diabetes, cancer, lung disease, heart problems, stroke, psychiatric problems, and arthritis. Compared to a population in good health, the current health of the population reduces retirement age by about one year. Including detailed health dynamics in a retirement model does not influence estimates of the marginal effects of economic incentives on retirement.

Social health insurance framework of any country is the national identifier of the country’s policy for taking care of its population which cannot access or afford quality healthcare. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the strategic imperatives of digital technology for the inclusive social health models for the BoP customers.

A qualitative exploratory study using in-depth personal interviews with 53 Indian health insurance CXOs was conducted with a semi-structured questionnaire. Using MaxQDA software, the interview transcripts were analyzed by means of thematic content analysis technique and patterns identified based on the expert opinions.

A framework for the strategic imperatives of digital technology in social health insurance emerged from the study highlighting three key themes for technology implementation in the social health insurance sector – analytics for risk management, cost optimization for operations and enhancement of customer experience. The study results provide key insights about how insurers can enhance the coverage of BoP population by leveraging technology.

The framework would help health insurers and policymakers to select strategic choices related to technology that would enable creation of inclusive health insurance models for BoP customers.

The absence of specific studies highlighting the strategic digital imperatives in social health insurance creates a unique value proposition for this framework which can help health insurers in developing a convergence in their risk management and customer delight objectives and assist the government in the formulation of a sustainable social health insurance framework.

Disparities in access to health services continue to exist among adults age 65 and older in the United States despite near-universal insurance coverage provided through Medicare. One potential barrier to health service utilization is knowledge of health insurance coverage. Medicare has been drastically restructured in the recent past, and as the program becomes increasingly privatized, Medicare enrollees are left with more choices, but also a more complicated system through which to navigate. This study examines the relationship between Medicare enrollee knowledge of their Medicare health insurance and sociodemographic factors, health status, and the use of health services. Data was analyzed from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a nationally representative study of the U.S. civilian, non-institutionalized, household population. Included in this study were Black, Hispanic, and White respondents aged 65 and older who participated in the NHIS from 2004 to 2009 (N=30,002). The prevalence of a lack of Medicare knowledge appears to be low among Medicare enrollees, with 13% reporting they did not know the answer to one or more questions about their coverage. Age and chronic illness status were found to be related to Medicare plan knowledge, with older adults and those who were not chronically ill more likely to report they did not know some aspect about their Medicare plan. Respondents who reported not knowing at least one question about their Medicare plan reported significantly fewer medical office visits and more time since they last interacted with a doctor, were less likely to have talked with a medical specialist, and have had surgery over the past year. The findings from this study suggest that knowledge of health insurance coverage is an important correlate of health service utilization, which may be shaped by disparities in access to health insurance across the life course.

Reducing health inequalities between the poor and the rich is one of the challenges that the Iranian healthcare sector is facing. One of the goals of the Iranian Government in the Healthcare Sector Evolution Plan (HSEP) is claimed to be creating an opportunity for the poor to use inexpensive services. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the status of the poor in the HSEP. Based on this evaluation, the authors will provide policy recommendations to improve the benefits of the HSEP for the poor people.

This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted in 2017. The research sample includes policymakers, experts and scholars at the macro-level of the Iranian healthcare system who were well-aware of the financial support for the poor. Overall, 35 semi-structured interviews were carried out. Data were analyzed based on the thematic analysis method.

The effects of the HSEP on the poor were studied in terms of their positive outcomes and challenges. Despite the achievements of the HSEP for all people, the most important challenge was the lack of targeted state subsidies for the poor. These subsidies should have included free insurance coverage, reducing inpatient payment and allocation of a separate budget for the poor.

Adopting some policies to target public health subsidies toward the poor such as free insurance specific for the poor (based on means testing), as well as user fee exemption and waivers could improve access to health services for them in Iran. In addition, separate funding for such policies, strengthening health prevention and health care services for marginalized populations, and improving their health literacy could help ensure the poor’s benefiting more from the health care services.

The purpose of this paper is to present a historical overview of the health service sector in India. The development in the healthcare sector from the late eighteenth century into current times is examined from the prism of the role played by British and US healthcare systems in influencing change in the Indian setup.

Online databases searched were PubMed and JSTOR, using the search terms, “Indian health service system in transition”, “British influence on the Indian healthcare setup” and “American neo-liberal influence on Indian healthcare sector”. The authors then examined titles and abstracts of selected articles for short-listing relevant articles. Reference lists of selected articles were examined for further locating related studies. While this constituted the secondary literature for the current paper, reports by governmental and non-governmental organisation reports on the Indian health service system too were utilised as primary data sources.

Influenced by the British and later by the American healthcare system, the Indian healthcare network has undergone numerous changes. In the present era, the Indian healthcare system is increasingly veering towards the American model of healthcare delivery. Health is increasingly being conceived of as a commodity to be traded in the market, with the state’s role curtailed towards provisioning for and facilitating access of the weakest sections of the society through a means-tested insurance system. This has happened without adequate checks and balances on the private sector to ensure that the needs of the people accessing the system are adequately met.

By tracing the development of the health service sector in India and the motives that guide such change, the paper depicts how the thrust of the system has altered from one providing universal healthcare services to the people, irrespective of their ability to pay, at the time of independence to commercialisation in present times. With the marketisation of healthcare, the focus has shifted from serving people to profiting from the provisioning of healthcare.

The paper throws light on the underlying inadequacies of the Indian healthcare setup and the need for more active participation by the government in this sector in the future if it aims to make healthcare more equitably accessible to its vast population.