Third party buying: the trend and the consequences

The trend toward more buying of health insurance, life insurance, and pension or annuity plans through employers brings up problems of consumer sovereignty , problems of the incentives of service providers, and problems of availability of the services of insurance which are only available through group buying. In order to specify what social indicators would be useful in this area, this paper analyzes the incentive systems for consumers, for service providers, and for employers as they are affected by the trend toward third party buying. It assesses the indicators that are available on the trend, and the literature in health economics which tried to analyze the impact of the trend on the provision of health services and health costs. On this basis, needed social indicators for policy assessment in the area of third party buying are suggested.