Regulated competition in health insurance markets: Paradigms and ongoing issues

In many countries public policy towards health insurance is guided by principles of regulated (or managed) competition. This introductory chapter gives an overview of the intellectual roots of regulated competition and shows how elements of this concept are put into practice in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America. While there is considerable heterogeneity in the details of the regulations in these markets, there are also many commonalities. In each of these markets, health plan payment serves as a cornerstone for simultaneously achieving efficiency goals and objectives related to fairness. This chapter gives a flavor of the diversity of payment systems and the tradeoffs involved. We conclude by explaining how we see the volume as contributing to policy and research on regulated competition and health plan payment.

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