Private Health Insurance and the European Union

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction: The European Union, the Insurance Industry and the Public-Private Mix in Healthcare

   • Cyril Benoît, Marion Del Sol, Philippe Martin

   Pages 1-26Open Access

3. The Political Roots of EU Insurance Legislation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 27-27

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   2. Insurance Directives and the Single Market: Towards a Trivialisation of Private Health Insurance?

      • Gaël Coron, Marion Del Sol

      Pages 29-54

   3. Solvency II, the European Government of Insurance Industry and Private Health Insurance

      • Cyril Benoît

      Pages 55-82

4. The Impact of the European Union Private Health Insurance

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 83-83

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   2. The Uncertain and Differentiated Impact of EU Law on National (Private) Health Insurance Regulations

      • Philippe Martin, Marion Del Sol

      Pages 85-127

   3. An Increasing Homogenisation of Private Health Insurers Under Solvency II?

      • Philippe Abecassis, Nathalie Coutinet

      Pages 129-159

5. Shifting the Public-Private Mix in Healthcare? Multifaceted Paths Towards Europeanization

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 161-161

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   2. Private Health Insurance in Belgium: Marketization Crowded Out?

      • Cyril Benoît, Marion Del Sol

      Pages 163-189

   3. Europeanized, Marketized but Still Governed by the State? Private Health Insurance in France

      • Gaël Coron, Thomas Houssoy, Cyril Benoît

      Pages 191-218

   4. Ireland: The Ambiguous Role of the Health Insurance Market

      • Philippe Martin, Pascale Turquet

      Pages 219-246

   5. The Dutch Way: Experimenting with Competition in the Healthcare System

      • Pascale Turquet, Philippe Martin

      Pages 247-280

   6. In Between the Market and Public Health Insurance: A Place for Occupational Welfare in Europe?

      • Thomas Houssoy, Marion Del Sol, Philippe Martin

      Pages 281-328

Research has paid little attention to date on how European Union law and regulation affect both the public-private mix in healthcare and the organization of private health insurance as an industry. Filling this gap, this collective book provides insights on the political economy of EU insurance regulation, its impact on private health insurers and on its interactions with domestic healthcare policy-making in four countries. Assembling original contributions drafted by a multidisciplinary team, Private Health Insurance and the European Union offers a thorough examination of a largely unrecognized source of EU influence in healthcare – and sheds a new light on the role played by private actors in social policy.           

• EU legislation
• private health insurance
• public health policy
• policy making
• national governments

“This book offers a sharp and comprehensive overview of the ongoing creeping privatization of healthcare and how it is shaped by the European Union through the making of a European insurance market. The chapters investigate both the top down and bottom up dynamics of marketization and are thus of interest not only for students of healthcare but also of the Europeanisation of public policy more broadly. In times of global pandemics where the healthcare sector is facing major challenges, this book could not be more timely”.

“This comparative study of private health insurance in Europe shines a welcome light on an intricate and poorly understood topic of great consequence. Private insurance schemes vary widely, with distinctive roles and regulatory frameworks in the member states and at the EU level. In some systems, their operation belies egalitarian promises of the broader health system. Member state and European reforms in the sector rightly awaken fears that private insurance will undermine social systems. This comparative analysis demystifies the complex world of private
health insurance regulation while making clear the ways in which private insurance, and even well-intentioned policy reforms, can create inequality and inefficiency in health care”.
“Private Health Insurance and the European Union explores the complex dialogue at European and national level between market and public health contrasting logics. This interdisciplinary book, which is a unique collection of theoretical and empirical research papers, shows that choices made about private health insurance greatly influence the nature of the coverage. The book underlines the ambiguity of the interactions between public and private stakeholders and at the same time questions the role of the latter. Researchers, practitioners and students in the fields of social protection, insurance, healthcare and EU-policy making will find invaluable
information and elements of analysis in this research project”.
—Jean-Philippe Lhernould, Professor of Law, Université de Poitiers, France​

• Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po (Paris), CNRS, Paris, France

  Cyril Benoît

• Intitut de l’Ouest : Droit et Europe Université de Rennes 1, Rennes, France

  Marion Del Sol

• Centre for Comparative Labour Law and Social Security, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, Pessac, France

  Philippe Martin