Investigators from University of Nicosia Release New Data on Health Insurance (Combined social and private health insurance versus catastrophic out…

Managed Care Weekly Digest

Investigators from University of Nicosia Release New Data on Health Insurance (Combined social and private health insurance versus catastrophic out of pocket payments for private hospital care in Greece)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Researchers detail new data in Health Insurance. According to news reporting originating from Nicosia, Cyprus, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "The high level of out of pocket (OOP) payments constitutes a major concern for Greece and several other European and OECD countries as a result of the significant down turning of their public health finances due to the 2008 financial crisis. The basic objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the effect of combining social health insurance (SHI) and private health insurance (PHI) on OOP payments."

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of Nicosia, "Further, this study examines the catastrophic impact of OOP payments on insured's welfare using the incidence and intensity methodological approach of measuring catastrophic health care expenditures. Conducting a cross-sectional survey in Greece in 2013, we find that the combination of SHI-PHI has a strong negative influence on insured OOP payments for inpatient health care in private hospitals. Furthermore, our results indicate that SHI coverage is not sufficient by itself to manage with this issue. Moreover, we find that poor people present a greater tendency to incur catastrophic OOP expenditures for hospital health care in private providers."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Drawing evidence from Greece, a country with huge fiscal problems that has suffered the consequences of the economic crisis more than any other, could be a starting point for policymakers to consider the perspective of SHI-PHI co-operation against OOP payments more seriously."

For more information on this research see: Combined social and private health insurance versus catastrophic out of pocket payments for private hospital care in Greece. International Journal of Health Economics and Management, 2017;17(3):261-287. International Journal of Health Economics and Management can be contacted at: Springer, 233 Spring St, New York, NY 10013, USA (see also Health Insurance).

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting N. Grigorakis, Univ Nicosia, Sch Business, Nicosia, Cyprus. Additional authors for this research include C. Floros, H. Tsangari and E. Tsoukatos.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10754-016-9203-7. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Keywords for this news article include: Nicosia, Cyprus, Europe, Health Insurance, Hospital, University of Nicosia.