The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care
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This article focuses on the redistributive effects of different measures to finance public health insurance. We analyse the implications of different financing options for public health insurance on the redistribution of income from good to bad health risks and from high-income to low-income individuals. The financing options considered are either income-related (namely income taxes, payroll taxes, and indirect taxes), health-related (co-insurance, deductibles, and no-claim), or neither (flat fee). We show that governments who treat access to health care as a basic right for everyone should consider redistributive effects when reforming health care financing.
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The Federal Joint Committee (FJC; Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G-BA) defines the health-care elements that are to be reimbursed by sickness funds. To define a directive, the FJC can commission benefit assessments, which provide an overview of the scientific evidence regarding the efficacy and benefits of an intervention. This paper describes the operational implementation of the legal requirements with regard to the benefit assessments of medicines. ⋯ During the writing of the final report, a separation between the evidence assessment and the evidence-appraisal phase should be implemented. Ideally, this separation should be legally enforced to prevent any confusion about conflict of interests. Such a process guarantees a feasible combination of the legal requirements for transparency and involvement of relevant parties with international standards of EBM to ensure that the benefit assessments of medicines in Germany are performed according to the highest standards.
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Since the early 1990s, the Government of Indonesia has addressed high maternal mortality by attempting to ensure skilled attendance at delivery through access to trained village midwifery services in every village. Yet access to skilled services at delivery continues to prove problematic, with low levels of skilled attendance and high mortality. ⋯ Because rural midwives must earn a significant fraction of their income from private fees this acts to deter women from seeking their help. A new system of targeting poor women utilising the existing state insurance company (ASKES) is an important step in helping to reduce these barriers, but may not be sufficiently generous to protect all those that are considered vulnerable.
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Decision-analytical modelling is widely used in health-care economic evaluations, especially in situations where evaluators lack clinical trial data, and in circumstances where such evaluations factor into reimbursement pricing decisions. This paper aims to improve the understanding and use of modelling techniques in this context, with particular emphasis on Markov modelling. ⋯ Good practice of modelling requires careful planning, conduct and analysis of the model, and needs input from modellers and users.