MACMILLAN Private Health Insurance and the European Union

Research has paid little attention to date on how European Union law and regulation affect both the public-private mix in healthcare and the organization of private health insurance as an industry. Filling this gap, this collective book provides insights on the political economy of EU insurance regulation, its impact on private health insurers and on its interactions with domestic healthcare policy-making in four countries. Assembling original contributions drafted by a multidisciplinary team, Private Health Insurance and the European Union offers a thorough examination of a largely unrecognized source of EU influence in healthcare – and sheds a new light on the role played by private actors in social policy.            Chapter 1 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. Review Review “This book offers a sharp and comprehensive overview of the ongoing creeping privatization of healthcare and how it is shaped by the European Union through the making of a European insurance market. The chapters investigate both the top down and bottom up dynamics of marketization and are thus of interest not only for students of healthcare but also of the Europeanisation of public policy more broadly. In times of global pandemics where the healthcare sector is facing major challenges, this book could not be more timely”. ―Amandine Crespy, Associate Professor of Politics Science, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium “This comparative study of private health insurance in Europe shines a welcome light on an intricate and poorly understood topic of great consequence. Private insurance schemes vary widely, with distinctive roles and regulatory frameworks in the member states and at the EU level. In some systems, their operation belies egalitarian promises of the broader health system. Member state and European reforms in the sector rightly awaken fears that private insurance will undermine social systems. This comparative analysis demystifies the complex world of private health insurance regulation while making clear the ways in which private insurance, and even well-intentioned policy reforms, can create inequality and inefficiency in health care”. ―Scott Greer, Professor of Management and Health Policy, University of Michigan, USA “Private Health Insurance and the European Union explores the complex dialogue at European and national level between market and public health contrasting logics. This interdisciplinary book, which is a unique collection of theoretical and empirical research papers, shows that choices made about private health insurance greatly influence the nature of the coverage. The book underlines the ambiguity of the interactions between public and private stakeholders and at the same time questions the role of the latter. Researchers, practitioners and students in the fields of social protection, insurance, healthcare and EU-policy making will find invaluable information and elements of analysis in this research project”. ―Jean-Philippe Lhernould, Professor of Law, Université de Poitiers, France From the Back Cover Research has paid little attention to date on how European Union law and regulation affect both the public-private mix in healthcare and the organization of private health insurance as an industry. Filling this gap, this collective book provides insights on the political economy of EU insurance regulation, its impact on private health insurers and on its interactions with domestic healthcare policy-making in four countries. Assembling original contributions drafted by a multidisciplinary team, Private Health Insurance and the European Union offers a thorough examination of a largely unrecognized source of EU influence in healthcare – and sheds a new light on the role played by private actors in social policy.Chapter 1 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attri