Supplemental health insurance: did Croatia miss an opportunity?

Croatia continues to face a health-funding crisis. A recent supplemental health insurance law increases revenues through first increasing co-payments, then raising the payroll tax to cover those co-payments. This public finance "slight-of-hand" will not solve the system's structural issues and may worsen system performance both in terms of efficiency and equity. Should Croatia have considered private supplemental insurance as an alternative? There is a new single private supplemental health insurance market now evolving over the EU countries and into Eastern Europe. Croatians could take advantage of lowered costs due to larger risk pooling and the lower administrative overhead of mature insurance organizations. Private supplemental insurance, when designed well, can address several objectives, including a) increased revenues into the health sector; b) removal of the public burden of coverage of selected services for certain population groups; and c) encourage new management and organizational innovations into the sector. Private and multiple company insurance markets are thought to be superior in terms of consumer responsiveness; choice of benefits; adoption of new, more expensive technology; and use of private sector providers. Private sector insurers may also encourage "spillover" effects encouraging reforms with public sector insurance performance. There is already an emerging private insurance market in Croatia, but can it be expanded and properly regulated? The private insurance companies might capture as much as 30-70% of the market for certain services, such as high cost procedures, preferred providers, and hotel amenities. But the Government will need to strengthen the regulatory framework for private insurance and assure that there is adequate regulatory capacity.