Erasmus University Medical Center Reports Findings in Health Policy (Do health insurers use target marketing as a tool for risk selection? Evidence from the Netherlands): Health and Medicine – Health Policy

2022 JAN 24 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Health and Medicine - Health Policy is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating in Rotterdam, Netherlands, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “In health care systems based on managed competition, enrolees can choose between insurers who are positioned as prudent buyers of care on their behalf. To avoid risk selection, insurers are compensated through a system of risk equalisation.”

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Erasmus University Medical Center, “The Dutch system of risk equalisation is generally considered to be one of the most sophisticated in the world. Empirical evidence, however, shows there are still consumer segments that are profitable for insurers. To examine whether insurers use target marketing for attracting these segments, we assessed promotional material used by Dutch insurers during the switching season of 2019. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that large insurers with different brands primarily use their sub brands as strategic vehicles to improve their competitive positions by targeting these brands at financially favourable groups and price sensitive buyers. By contrast, the more visible main brands are targeted at a much broader spectrum of consumer groups to display the insurer’s social character. Only a minority of insurers’ marketing expressions are targeted at actual users of care. Despite continuous improvements in the risk equalisation system, on average this group is still unprofitable for insurers.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “From a health policy perspective, further improvements are key to motivate health insurers to target their efforts at improving care for the chronically ill and to eliminate incentives for risk selection.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Do health insurers use target marketing as a tool for risk selection? Evidence from the Netherlands. Health Policy, 2021. Health Policy can be contacted at: Elsevier Ireland Ltd, Elsevier House, Brookvale Plaza, East Park Shannon, Co, Clare, 00000, Ireland. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Health Policy - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/health-policy/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Karel C. F. Stolper, Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University Medical Center, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands. Additional authors for this research include Lieke H. H. M. Boonen, Frederik T. Schut and Marco Varkevisser.

The publisher of the journal Health Policy can be contacted at: Elsevier Ireland Ltd, Elsevier House, Brookvale Plaza, East Park Shannon, Co, Clare, 00000, Ireland.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)