@article{537c4a843bc346c0974aee7b8c95fc14,
title = "The redistributive effect of health care finance in twelve OECD countries",
abstract = "The OECD countries finance their health care through a mixture of taxes, social insurance contributions, private insurance premiums and out-of-pocket payments. The various payment sources have very different implications for both vertical and horizontal equity and on redistributive effect which is a function of both. This paper presents results on the income redistribution consequences of the health care financing mixes adopted in twelve OECD countries by decomposing the overall income redistributive effect into a progressivity, horizontal inequity and reranking component. The general finding of this study is that the vertical effect is much more important than horizontal inequity and reranking in determining the overall redistributive effect but that their relative importance varies by source of payment. Public finance sources tend to have small positive redistributive effects and less differential treatment while private financing sources generally have (larger) negative redistributive effects which are to a substantial degree caused by differential treatment.",
keywords = "Health care financing, Horizontal equity, Progressivity, Redistributive effect, Reranking",
author = "{Van Doorslaer}, Eddy and Adam Wagstaff and {Van Der Burg}, Hattem and Terkel Christiansen and Guido Citoni and {Di Biase}, Rita and Gerdtham, {Ulf G.} and Mike Gerfin and Lorna Gross and Unto H{\"a}kinnen and J{\"u}rgen John and Paul Johnson and Jan Klavus and Claire Lachaud and J{\o}rgen Lauritsen and Robert Leu and Brian Nolan and Jo{\~a}o Pereira and Carol Propper and Frank Puffer and Lise Rochaix and Martin Schellhorn and Gun Sundberg and Olaf Winkelhake",
note = "Funding Information: This paper is derived from the project `Equity in the Finance and Delivery of Health Care in Europe' (the so-called ECuity Project), which is funded by the European Union's Biomed I Programme (contract BMH1-CT92). It is jointly coordinated by Eddy van Doorslaer and Adam Wagstaff. We are grateful to the EU for financial support. The paper incorporates material presented at a seminar on Income Distribution, Taxes and Benefits held at the London School of Economics in December 1994, at the Third European Conference on Health Economics held in Stockholm in August 1995, and at the Inaugural Conference of the International Health Economics Association (iHEA) held in Vancouver in May 1996. We are grateful to participants at these events, to Peter Lambert and to two referees for their helpful comments on earlier versions. We alone are responsible for any errors. ",
year = "1999",
month = jun,
doi = "10.1016/S0167-6296(98)00043-5",
language = "English",
volume = "18",
pages = "291--313",
journal = "Journal of Health Economics",
issn = "0167-6296",
publisher = "Elsevier",
number = "3",
}