Policy Options to Reduce Fragmentation in the Pooling of Health Insurance Funds in Iran
There are fragmentations in Iran’s health insurance system. Multiple health insurance funds exist, without adequate provisions for transfer or redistribution of cross subsidy among them. Multiple risk pools, including several private secondary insurance schemes, have resulted in a tiered health insu...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Kerman University of Medical Sciences
2016-04-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Health Policy and Management |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.ijhpm.com/pdf_3160_57ea64ea68190dafa8de87e881d446d0.html |
| _version_ | 1819239833929777152 |
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| author | Mohammad Bazyar Arash Rashidian Sumit Kane Mohammad Reza Vaez Mahdavi Ali Akbari Sari Leila Doshmangir |
| author_facet | Mohammad Bazyar Arash Rashidian Sumit Kane Mohammad Reza Vaez Mahdavi Ali Akbari Sari Leila Doshmangir |
| author_sort | Mohammad Bazyar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There are fragmentations in Iran’s health insurance system. Multiple health insurance funds exist, without adequate provisions for transfer or redistribution of cross subsidy among them. Multiple risk pools, including several private secondary insurance schemes, have resulted in a tiered health insurance system with inequitable benefit packages for different segments of the population. Also fragmentation might have contributed to inefficiency in the health insurance systems, a low financial protection against healthcare expenditures for the insured persons, high coinsurance rates, a notable rate of insurance coverage duplication, low contribution of well-funded institutes with generous benefit package to the public health insurance schemes, underfunding and severe financial shortages for the public funds, and a lack of transparency and reliable data and statistics for policy-making. We have conducted a policy analysis study, including qualitative interviews of key informants and document analysis. As a result we introduce three policy options: keeping the existing structural fragmentations of social health insurance (SHI) schemes but implementing a comprehensive “policy integration” strategy; consolidation of existing health insurance funds and creating a single national health insurance scheme; and reducing fragmentation by merging minor well-resourced funds together and creating two or three large insurance funds under the umbrella of the existing organizations. These policy options with their advantages and disadvantages are explained in the paper. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T13:58:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e52450f9fe474113a90a2da4339aabd4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2322-5939 2322-5939 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T13:58:24Z |
| publishDate | 2016-04-01 |
| publisher | Kerman University of Medical Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Health Policy and Management |
| spelling | doaj.art-e52450f9fe474113a90a2da4339aabd42022-12-21T17:44:23ZengKerman University of Medical SciencesInternational Journal of Health Policy and Management2322-59392322-59392016-04-015425325810.15171/ijhpm.2016.12Policy Options to Reduce Fragmentation in the Pooling of Health Insurance Funds in IranMohammad Bazyar0Arash Rashidian1 Sumit Kane2Mohammad Reza Vaez Mahdavi3Ali Akbari Sari4 Leila Doshmangir5Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranDepartment of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranDepartment of Development Policy and Practice, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsDepartment of Physiology, School of Medicine, Shahed University, Tehran, IranDepartment of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranDepartment of Health Services Management, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Iranian Center of Excellence in Health Management, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IranThere are fragmentations in Iran’s health insurance system. Multiple health insurance funds exist, without adequate provisions for transfer or redistribution of cross subsidy among them. Multiple risk pools, including several private secondary insurance schemes, have resulted in a tiered health insurance system with inequitable benefit packages for different segments of the population. Also fragmentation might have contributed to inefficiency in the health insurance systems, a low financial protection against healthcare expenditures for the insured persons, high coinsurance rates, a notable rate of insurance coverage duplication, low contribution of well-funded institutes with generous benefit package to the public health insurance schemes, underfunding and severe financial shortages for the public funds, and a lack of transparency and reliable data and statistics for policy-making. We have conducted a policy analysis study, including qualitative interviews of key informants and document analysis. As a result we introduce three policy options: keeping the existing structural fragmentations of social health insurance (SHI) schemes but implementing a comprehensive “policy integration” strategy; consolidation of existing health insurance funds and creating a single national health insurance scheme; and reducing fragmentation by merging minor well-resourced funds together and creating two or three large insurance funds under the umbrella of the existing organizations. These policy options with their advantages and disadvantages are explained in the paper.http://www.ijhpm.com/pdf_3160_57ea64ea68190dafa8de87e881d446d0.htmlFragmentationHealth Insurance Funds in IranIntegration of PoliciesConsolidationRisk Pooling |
| spellingShingle | Mohammad Bazyar Arash Rashidian Sumit Kane Mohammad Reza Vaez Mahdavi Ali Akbari Sari Leila Doshmangir Policy Options to Reduce Fragmentation in the Pooling of Health Insurance Funds in Iran International Journal of Health Policy and Management Fragmentation Health Insurance Funds in Iran Integration of Policies Consolidation Risk Pooling |
| title | Policy Options to Reduce Fragmentation in the Pooling of Health Insurance Funds in Iran |
| title_full | Policy Options to Reduce Fragmentation in the Pooling of Health Insurance Funds in Iran |
| title_fullStr | Policy Options to Reduce Fragmentation in the Pooling of Health Insurance Funds in Iran |
| title_full_unstemmed | Policy Options to Reduce Fragmentation in the Pooling of Health Insurance Funds in Iran |
| title_short | Policy Options to Reduce Fragmentation in the Pooling of Health Insurance Funds in Iran |
| title_sort | policy options to reduce fragmentation in the pooling of health insurance funds in iran |
| topic | Fragmentation Health Insurance Funds in Iran Integration of Policies Consolidation Risk Pooling |
| url | http://www.ijhpm.com/pdf_3160_57ea64ea68190dafa8de87e881d446d0.html |
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