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Premium subsidies and social insurance: Substitutes or complements?

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  • Kifmann, Mathias
  • Roeder, Kerstin

Abstract

Premium subsidies have been advocated as an alternative to social health insurance. These subsidies are paid if expenditure on health insurance exceeds a given share of income. In this paper, we examine whether this approach is superior to social insurance from a welfare perspective. We show that the results crucially depend on the correlation of health and productivity. For a positive correlation, we find that combining premium subsidies with social insurance is the optimal policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Kifmann, Mathias & Roeder, Kerstin, 2011. "Premium subsidies and social insurance: Substitutes or complements?," hche Research Papers 2011/01, University of Hamburg, Hamburg Center for Health Economics (hche).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:hcherp:201101
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kifmann, Mathias & Roeder, Kerstin, 2011. "Premium subsidies and social health insurance: Substitutes or complements?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1207-1218.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hofer, Florian & Birkner, Benjamin & Spindler, Martin, 2021. "Power of machine learning algorithms for predicting dropouts from a German telemonitoring program using standardized claims data," hche Research Papers 24, University of Hamburg, Hamburg Center for Health Economics (hche).
    2. Jan Brosse & Mathias Kifmann, 2013. "Competition in Health Insurance and Premium Regulation," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 11(01), pages 21-26, April.
    3. Ousmane Traoré, 2021. "The relationship between health poverty and income poverty in Sub-Saharan African countries: evidence from index correlations," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(10), pages 1-19, October.
    4. Jan Brosse & Mathias Kifmann, 2013. "Competition in Health Insurance and Premium Regulation," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 11(1), pages 21-26, 04.
    5. Milstein, Ricarda & Schreyögg, Jonas, 2022. "Activity-based funding based on diagnosis-related groups: The end of an era? A review of payment reforms in the inpatient sector in ten high-income countries," hche Research Papers 28, University of Hamburg, Hamburg Center for Health Economics (hche).
    6. repec:ces:ifodic:v:11:y:2013:i:1:p:19083487 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Nuscheler, Robert & Roeder, Kerstin, 2015. "Financing and funding health care: Optimal policy and political implementability," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 197-208.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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