VOLUNTARY HEALTH INSURANCE AS A METHOD OF HEALTH CARE FINANCING IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

In times of systematically rising health expenditure and insufficient cover provided by publicly-financed health systems additional methods of private health care funding become more and more considerable. The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of voluntary health insurance (VHI) purchased in European countries and to analyze its contribution to health care financing systems. In the paper voluntary health insurance as a part of health expenditure incurred by the European countries is considered. Next, the results of analysis concerning the main characteristics of health insurance markets in Europe are presented. The conducted analysis was mainly focused on: the value of gross written premiums, the amount of benefits paid, the number of health insurers operating in the markets and the percentage of populations covered by voluntary health insurance. The current trends and challenges for the health insurance sector in Europe are also discussed