Two Centuries of Solidarity : : German, Belgian and Dutch social health insurance 1770-2008 / / B.E.M. Widdershoven, R.H.M. Hendriks, K.P. Companje, K.F.E. Veraghtert.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter AUP eBook Package Backfile 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Companje, K.P.,; Hendriks, R.H.M.,; Veraghtert, K.F.E.,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Series: History of Healthcare Insurance ; 3
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (400 p.)

Today, health insurance is a key component in the system of social security in most European Union countries. In many of these countries, modern health-insurance funds and healthcare insurers play an essential role in implementing the public health-insurance system. Many of these health-insurance funds have a long and fascinating history, of which clear traces can be seen today in the organisation and structure of health insurance, as well as health-insurance funds and insurers.In Two centuries of solidarity, the authors compare the systems of health insurance, health-insurance funds and healthcare insurers in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Given the similar political, economic and social development that these countries have undergone in the past 60 years and the availability of a qualitatively high level of health care, one might expect a high degree of similarity between these countries’ healthcare insurance systems. However, the dissimilarities are surprising. In fact, these differences are currently becoming ever more apparent between systems in general, and the structure and operation of the health insurance funds and health care insurers in particular. The differences include the compulsory nature of insurance, the extent of coverage, premiums, entrepreneurship, competition, and the degree of private insurance. Many of these national singularities can be understood and explained only by considering the historical background of the health insurance systems, the insurers, and their evolution over the past two centuries. This study adopts an institutional and political perspective towards a further understanding of the development of health insurance, and of how this ultimately determined the specific nature of the healthcare insurers and funds and the way they currently operate in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Acronyms and abbreviations -- Translations -- Introduction -- Chapter I. Guilds and sickness funds. Solidarity during the Ancien Régime -- Chapter II. The end of the guild system, 1789-1820 -- Chapter III. The birth of modern social health insurance -- Chapter IV. Health insurance as a governmental responsibility, 1850-1914 -- Chapter V. War, peace, war, 1914-1945 -- Chapter VI. Growth and its limits, 1945-2000 -- Chapter VII. Social health insurance and neoliberal regulated market competition, 2000-2008 -- Chapter VIII. The art of mutual understanding: one concept in three countries -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Tables And Charts -- Bibliography