Search results for "Insurance"
showing 10 items of 194 documents
Health care systems of developed non-U.S. nations: strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations for the United States--observations from internationall…
2010
The purpose of this article is to survey imaging experts from developed nations on their impression of their own health care system and recommendations for the U.S. health care system as it seeks to enact health care reform.A survey was sent to individual imaging experts from developed nations requesting information on their health care systems (type of system, strengths, and weaknesses) and their recommendations for the United States.Eighteen respondents from 17 developed nations completed the survey. All respondents reported universal health care coverage: four with government-operated health care, one with mixed government and private insurance-operated health care, 10 with predominantly…
Lipid-lowering drug use in Italian primary care: effects of reimbursement criteria revision
2008
OBJECTIVE: To assess whether the prescribing pattern of lipid-lowering drugs (LLD) changed after reimbursement criteria revision in a general practice in southern Italy. METHODS: From the Caserta-1 Local Health Service database, 93 general practitioners (GPs) who had consistently sent data about their patients during the years 2003-2005 were recruited. Prevalence of use and incidence of new treatments were calculated for each year, stratified by three drug cohorts: statins, omega-3 fatty acids, and fibrates. Subanalyses by gender, age, and indication of use were performed. RESULTS: Overall, 1-year prevalence of LLD use increased from 2003 to 2004. After reimbursement criteria revision (Nove…
Precarious workers' choices about unemployment insurance membership after the Ghent system reform : The Finnish experience
2019
The literature on the Ghent system has focused on the link between voluntary unemployment insurance and union membership in terms of industrial relations. Less attention has been paid to unemployment benefits and employees' decision-making concerning unemployment insurance, even though the core function of the Ghent system is to provide unemployment insurance. This paper examines both of the options that precarious workers (i.e., part-timers, temporary employees, and low-skilled service employees) choose regarding unemployment insurance membership and the change in union density after the Ghent system reform in Finland. First, the results show that the growth of the independent unemployment…
Agricultural Insurances and Food Security. The New Climate Change Challenges
2015
Abstract Food security is one of the highest problems that the governments have to face in the third millennium. The complexity of this problem justifies the performance of researches, in view of finding viable solutions, not only in agriculture, but in other branches of activity too. Among them, the field of insurances is to be noted by its struggles to adapt to the new challenges. This paper tries to clarify the way in which insurances may become a key factor for the food security and addresses the following issues: food security factors; factors impacting on the development of agricultural insurances, risks connected to the agricultural activities and the way in which the insurance prote…
International perspectives on radiology practice metrics: Australia, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and USA.
2014
INTRODUCTION The delivery of health care around the world is remarkably diverse in 2015. A comparison of the approximately 200 national entities on the planet reveals marked differences in national measures, both on the input side, such as health care spending, and in outcomes, such as life span. Using the percentage of gross domestic product as a metric for comparing health care spending, the current variation among nations is almost an order of magnitude, from the Marshall Islands and the United States at close to 20% to Myanmar at about 2% [1]. Outcomes are also highly variable, with an almost 2-fold difference in life span between the best and worst nations [2]. Within the nations repre…
The Challenges Faced by Life Insurance Companies in the Baltic States
2020
The Baltic life insurance market is a young steadily growing market. It began its development in the early 1990s when all three Baltic States, specifically Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have regained their independence. The Baltic life insurance market is limited due to a relatively small size with approximately six million inhabitants in all three countries. Additionally, the operations have deteriorated due to the low interest rates and the negative fluctuations in the financial market. The lessons learnt by the life insurers in the Baltic States are useful to other small countries in the European Union (EU) as well as to the larger States, to help bring to light the challenges of those …
How Do Insured Deposits Affect Bank Risk? Evidence from the 2008 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act
2017
Abstract This paper tests whether an increase in insured deposits causes banks to become more risky. We use variation introduced by the U.S. Emergency Economic Stabilization Act in October 2008, which increased the deposit insurance coverage from $100,000 to $250,000 per depositor and bank. For some banks, the amount of insured deposits increased significantly; for others, it was a minor change. Our analysis shows that the more affected banks increase their investments in risky commercial real estate loans and become more risky relative to unaffected banks following the change. This effect is most distinct for affected banks that are low capitalized.
Pricing the Option to Surrender in Incomplete Markets
2010
New international accounting standards require insurers to reflect the value of embedded options and guarantees in their products. Pricing techniques based on the Black and Scholes paradigm are often used; however, the hypotheses underneath this model are rarely met. We propose a framework that encompasses the most known sources of incompleteness. We show that the surrender option, joined with a wide range of claims embedded in insurance contracts, can be priced through our tool, and deliver hedging portfolios to mitigate the risk arising from their positions. We provide extensive empirical analysis to highlight the effect of incompleteness on the fair value of the option.
Health insurance: medical treatment vs. disability payment
2010
We present arguments for treating health insurance and disability insurance in an integrated manner in economic analysis, based on a model where each individual's utility depends on both consumption and health and her income depends on her earning ability. When purchasing insurance, she may choose a contract that offers less than full medical treatment. We find that high-ability individuals demand full recovery and equalize utility across states, while low-ability individuals demand partial treatment and cash compensation and suffer a loss in utility if ill. Our results carry over to the case where health states are not observable. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was acc…