Premium subsidies and social insurance: Substitutes or complements?

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: HCHE Research Paper ; No. 2011/01

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Taxation and Subsidies: Efficiency; Optimal Taxation ; National Government Expenditures and Health ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
• Subject: social insurance ; health insurance ; redistributive taxation ; equity ; Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung ; Versicherungsprämie ; Subvention ; Gesundheit ; Arbeitsproduktivität ; Wohlfahrtsanalyse ; Theorie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kifmann, Mathias ; Roeder, Kerstin
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Hamburg, Hamburg Center for Health Economics (HCHE)
• (where): Hamburg
• (when): 2011

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/65669
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET