Supplemental health insurance ownership in Israel: an empirical analysis and some implications

Many Western nations are implementing (or considering) changes in their health care systems. An integral component of these changes (or debates) refers to the functioning and regulation of the supplementary health insurance market. However, only limited empirical evidence exists on the functioning of the market, which is prone to the problems of moral hazard, adverse selection and risk selection. This paper presents an empirical analysis of ownership patterns of four supplementary insurance policies (acute care, nursing care, dental care and emergency intensive care) in the Israeli population aged 45- 75 in 1993. It further discusses some social policy and regulation issues related to the supplemental health insurance market in the post-1995 era of the Israeli National Health Insurance.