In my thesis, I deal with the issue of perception of health insurance companies in the South Bohemian Region. That is, how South Bohemian citizens perceive health insurance companies and whether they are satisfied with the services that health insurance companies provide. In the theoretical part, I present basic information about public health insurance system in the Czech Republic. I mention the history of health insurance evolution, its systems, and principles of its operation. I also deal with legislature which is the cornerstone of this system. Most of the laws were passed in the 1990?s when the Czech Republic began to develop the current version of health insurance. Since its inception, these laws have been amended several times. Public health insurance system in our country is based on the Bismarck model, which is based on the existence of multiple health insurance companies and contractual relationships between health insurance companies and health care facilities. Furthermore, the theoretical part refers about health insurance companies as such, whose activities are governed by Act No. 551/1991 Coll., on the General Health Insurance Company, and Act No. 280/1992 Coll., on departmental, professional, occupational and other health insurance companies. The practical part describes the results of my research focused on the aforementioned issue of perception of health insurance companies in the South Bohemian Region. The results have been obtained through quantitative analysis. The method of questioning, the technique of questionnaires, was used. In this research, two of three assumed hypotheses have been confirmed. The research shows that health insurance clients in the South Bohemian Region are satisfied with local and time availability of their health insurance company subsidiaries. Furthermore, the research carried out shows that citizens respect the opinion of their general practitioners on the selection of their health insurance company. In contrast, what good (preventive) programs health insurance companies offer is not crucial for citizens when selecting a health insurance company. The knowledge gained can form the basis for further research, but it can also serve to health insurance companies themselves to improve their services. The issue of health care and health insurance companies is still a topic of current concern, both in the political field and for the general public.

The master’s final work is written in Lithuanian language, consists of 77 Pages, 23 Figures, 16 Tables, 54 References, and 11 Appendixes. KEY Words: health insurance, health insurance system, compulsory health insurance, additional (voluntary) health insurance, health insurance Fund, Compulsory Health Insurance Fund Budget, health insurance payments, financing of health attendance, health attendance costs, efficiency. Research object: health insurance system. Research subject: health insurance. Research aim: after analyzing the theoretical and practical aspects of health insurance, to evaluate health insurance system in Lithuania, to foresee its perspectives and to provide the proposals for development. Objectives: to show the theoretical aspects of health insurance, to evaluate health system in Lithuania according to the chosen criterion (financing model, incomes, costs), to foresee the perspectives of health system and to provide the proposals for development. Research methods: analysis and synthesis of literature, logical analysis and synthesis, filing, comparison, vertical and horizontal analysis, simple linear regression and correlation, forecast calculations, diagrammatical representation of data. Health insurance system in Lithuania was analyzed and evaluated as well as the proposals for it’s development were presented by using scientific literature of foreign and Lithuanian authors, legislation, chronicles of statistics and electronic information sources.

Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) in Rwanda was promulgated as the best alternative to address the financial barriers for accessibility to health care services for the poor population and the informal sector. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether CBHI reduce Out-of-pocket health expenses for their members as compared to non-members and to what extent CBHI provide financial protection for the poorest population. This research based itself on secondary source of data primarily collected for a prospective quasi-experimental design which evaluated the impact of Performance-Based Financing. The primary study had reported on the Out-Of-Pocket expenses for health by members and non-members of CBHI; residing in a sample of 1961 households; in addition to their demographics and socio-economic characteristics. The findings indicate that insured individuals were about 2.6 times more likely to utilize health care services than respondents without health insurance. It is also worth noting that households with health insurance coverage were less likely to experience a catastrophic health expenditure than households without health insurance (aOR: 0.744; 95% CI:[0.586 - 0.945]), and that the effect of health insurance coverage was higher in people living in poor households than in people living in middle or richer households / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

The theses is referring to The Comparison of Health Insurance Systems in the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and the Neetherlands. It is focusing on three main components of the medical insurance system, the insurance companies, the healthcare providers and the insured parties. Each of these components has a significant role within the medical system and as their representation in distinct areas is quite broad, I prefered to choose the key areas where the medical insurance figures the most. Each chapter characterises one of the main components of the medical insurance system. First two chapters are the introduction and the models of financing of different medical systems. Third chapter depicts the main characteristics of the insurance system in each country. Fourth chapter names the rights and the duties of the insured person. Fifth chapter is acknowledged to the insurance companies and their role in the financement of the medical system. The last component of the medical system, the health care providers, are defined in the sixth chapter. The conclusion is attributed to the comparisson between the countries regarding the components listed above. The main goal of the theses is to present the differences between the health insurance systems and to evaluate the advantages and disadvanteges in...

The main aim of my dissertation Factors influencing the management of health insurance in 2004 2012 in the context of health insurance in The Czech Republic - was to identify and categorize the factors that affect the management of the chosen health insurance in 2004 2012 with the respect to existing system of health insurance. The first assessed year was 2007 because of unavailability of data in 2004 - 2007. My dissertation is divided into two parts, theoretical and practical. The theoretical part is devoted to the principles of health insurance, the legal relations of health insurance, the current system of public health insurance and the effects influencing the health insurance balance. The practical part deals with designated health insurance and its organizational structure, its management methods, the income side of the balance sheet, the expediture side of the balance and finally the ratings balance of the specific health insurance. The factors which affect this side of the balance were analysed in detail at the income side. Among these factors were included: trends in the number of policyholders, the development of receivables, the problems of "state policyholders", macroeconomic index and the redistribution system. The expediture balance was mainly focused on the cost of health care and preventive care. In conclusion the balance of one of the health insurance companies was evaluated in the selected years.

This thesis is aimed at learning selected aspects of the private health insurance system in OECD countries and its co-existence side by side with the public health insurance. Introductory chapters describe theoretic starting points and principles of functioning of the health insurance system in harmony with existing models of the healthcare policy. The analytical part of the thesis, using qualitative methods of investigation, deals with the development and the current state of the system of the health insurance in the Czech Republic from 1989 and characterizes briefly major problems being encountered and solved. Furthermore, the thesis maps trends of the health insurance in selected OECD countries, showing issues within the structure of healthcare system expenses in countries followed and their influence on the system of the health insurance. The thesis is also informing about present problems on the private health insurance market in OECD countries precisely as described in a study made by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The final chapter compares the mentioned health insurance systems from the point of view of co-payment and co-existence.

This thesis analyzes the private health insurance as a supplement to public health insurance in the Czech Republic. The first part discusses the theoretical concepts and the definition of insurance in the Czech insurance market. Concurrently carried out in detail the previous and upcoming reforms of health system. The second part focuses on the analysis of the impact of the introduction of commercial health insurance products to insurance economics and the economy forecast of further development in this area.

Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) in Rwanda was promulgated as the best alternative to address the financial barriers for accessibility to health care services for the poor population and the informal sector. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether CBHI reduce Out-of-pocket health expenses for their members as compared to non-members and to what extent CBHI provide financial protection for the poorest population. This research based itself on secondary source of data primarily collected for a prospective quasi-experimental design which evaluated the impact of Performance-Based Financing. The primary study had reported on the Out-Of-Pocket expenses for health by members and non-members of CBHI; residing in a sample of 1961 households; in addition to their demographics and socio-economic characteristics. The findings indicate that insured individuals were about 2.6 times more likely to utilize health care services than respondents without health insurance. It is also worth noting that households with health insurance coverage were less likely to experience a catastrophic health expenditure than households without health insurance (aOR: 0.744; 95% CI:[0.586 - 0.945]), and that the effect of health insurance coverage was higher in people living in poor households than in people living in middle or richer households / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

In 1969, President Richard Nixon declared that the “spiraling costs” of medical care constituted a “crisis.” Medicare and Medicaid had been passed only four years previously, and had dramatically changed the way Americans accessed and paid for medical care. The ensuing three decades ushered in a renewed period of advocacy for health care reform with costs remaining a consistent focus. Proponents for national health insurance framed health as a human right emphasizing equitable access. Those advocating for private health insurance touted the power of the marketplace to contain costs through competition and freedom of choice. Throughout the debates, health reform advocates, insurance industry representatives, medical providers, and legislators repeatedly referred to the “health consumer” as the potential benefactor of such reforms. But this ubiquitous term remained ambiguous. Who exactly was the “health consumer”? The contests over the rhetoric of the health consumer as an identity, its uses and political alignments, were engaged through print, in research, in organized campaigns, and in discrete individual interactions with health insurance and the health care system. These interconnected systems of power informed and were informed by the language used to describe them, in the sense of “structuring structures,” extending to economics and the consumer movement, social movements and civil rights. Thus the ideological orientations of the terms of the debate, focused on the “health consumer,” have shifted often and have continued to be contested in a dialectic relationship. This analysis therefore takes place at those intersections where health consumers as individuals have confronted the private, for-profit sphere by making claims for health consumer rights. The utility and ethical implications of commodification versus rights language have consistently been at the center of these opposing views. This dissertation examines the evolution of the dialectic dynamic of these two approaches to better understand how health consumer rights advocates have confronted challenges to include their voices in health care debates from the 1970s to the late 1980s at the local, state, and national levels. Specific sites include the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and the Center for Public Representation, both located in Wisconsin, as well as the national grassroots organization Citizen Action and the local chapter Massachusetts Fair Share. Moving beyond binary understandings such as "patients" and "non-patients," or even the "patient/consumer," the health consumer identity blurs distinctions of inclusion and exclusion and dramatically expands the framing of "who counts" in health social movements. The health consumer thereby has remained a locus of contestation and potential rhetorical power that can inform the more political use of the term for making rights claims, as well as the more economic approach that advocates for free market principles. As such, it is readily co-opted in movement/counter-movement shifts in language and political alignment. Such contests and co-optation frame each chapter in this dissertation. Ultimately, health social movements and the dynamic, even equivocal orientation of the “health consumer” identity may play a determinative role in how to move forward with health care policy reform that seeks to provide all Americans with equitable access to wellness, rather than vying to purchase health.

This study collects the views of 38 health policy leaders, answering one open-ended question in a 1-hour interview: What state-level reforms do you believe are necessary to implement a feasible model of universal health insurance in Oregon? Interviewees represented seven groups: state officials, insurers, purchasers, hospitals, physicians, public interest, and experts. About 370 coded arguments in the interview transcripts were condensed into 95 categorical topics. A code outline was constructed to present a dialogue among stakeholders in one comprehensive narrative. Topical sections include the cost imperative, politics, model systems, insurance, purchasing, delivery system, practice management, and finance. Summary results show the prevalence of group attention to each topic, group affinities, and proximity correlations of different arguments mentioned by individuals. The most common arguments related to problems of low-value care and delivery system reform. There was a generally felt imperative to control costs. Regarding universal health insurance, stakeholders were split between two main alternatives. One model, favored mostly by insurer and purchaser groups, supported the state-sponsored individual mandate. This plan, embodied in the current Oregon Action Plan to implement universal health insurance, involved managed competition for insurers and clinical governance over professional practice. A separate set of arguments, favored mostly by expert and physician groups, emphasized the need for a unified public system, or utility model, possibly with centralized funds and regional global budgets. The ability of the individual mandate plan to control costs or manage quality appears doubtful, which strengthens opposition. The utility model is more likely to work at cost control and governance, but it disrupts the status quo and its details are vague, which strengthens opposition. Neither model is endorsed by a majority of the stakeholders, and political success for either one alone is not promising. Possibly, a close analysis of the two models could find a way to combine them and generate unified support.