Demographic development and moral hazard: Health insurance with medical savings accounts

Jonas Schreyögg

No 2004/16, Discussion Papers from Technische Universität Berlin, School of Economics and Management

Abstract: In times of ever-rising health expenditures it is becoming more and more obvious that conventional models for funding health care are increasingly experiencing difficulties in meeting up this challenge. The concept of Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) represents an innovative and so far rarely analysed alternative for the funding of health care systems. In this concept an anticipated amount of money needed is saved up ex ante by each individual in a special account set aside to cover health care expenses. Since, however, health care expenses for certain kinds of treatment frequently exceed the financial capacity of the individual, Medical Savings Accounts are normally introduced in combination with health insurance covering defined services with higher financial risk. From a theoretical point of view the MSA concept helps counteracting the phenomenon of moral hazard in health insurance systems and at the same time coping with the future challenges posed by demographic development. This paper also examines first experiences gained so far with the implementation and use of Medical Savings Accounts in different countries. It draws a mixed but rather positive picture of the results. Therefore it could be feasible to integrate certain elements of this concept into health care systems of European countries.

JEL-codes: H4 I1 L3 O2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/36427/1/470110406.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Demographic Development and Moral Hazard: Health Insurance with Medical Savings Accounts (2004)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:tubsem:200416

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Technische Universität Berlin, School of Economics and Management Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().