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Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Applied Economics / Economía Aplicada is the property of FEA-RP, Universidade de Sao Paulo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We identify three threats to small group health insurance markets that may result from the 2014 implementation ofcertain provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). First, small employers with predominantly low-income employees may tend to opt out of small group markets because their employees will be better off with subsidized individual coverage. Second, small employers with employees of heterogeneous income levels will have strong incentives to offer coverage that is either "unaffordable" or fails to provide "minimum value" in order to preserve the availability of government subsidies for their low-income employees. Finally, small employers that continue to offer group plans will face increased incentives to self-insure those plans, further contracting small group markets and subjecting them to adverse selection. Collectively, these forces may destabilize small group markets and increase the ACA's fiscal cost. We therefore conclude by offering various reforms aimed at offsetting these risks and preserving the viability of small group markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document assesses the performance of SISBEN as instrument for targeting health insurance for the poor, RS, since it was created after Law 100 of 1993. Evidence suggests that targeting of health insurance based on Viejo SISBEN for years 1997 and 2003 was acceptable. In addition, preliminary evidence available for 2007 shows that the introduction of Nuevo SISBEN corrected several of the limitations of Viejo SISBEN, improving the targeting of RS. On the other hand, we analyze the effects of households' strategic response to SISBEN surveyors and find that the better off households benefit more of it, making of strategic response a regressive tool that allows close to one fifth of RS beneficiaries to manage to get included even though they are not actually eligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to health-care is low in developing countries. Poor people are less likely to seek care than those who are better off. Community-based health insurance (CBI) aims to improve healthcare utilisation by removing financial barriers, unfortunately CBI has been less effective in securing equity than expected. Poor people, who probably require greater protection from catastrophic health expenses, are less likely to enrol in such schemes. Therefore, it is important to implement targeted interventions so that the most in need are not left out. CBI has been offered to a district in Burkina Faso, comprising 7762 households in 41 villages and the district capital of Nouna since 2004. Community wealth ranking (CWR) was used in 2007 to identify the poorest quintile of households who were subsequently offered insurance at half the usual premium rate. The CWR is easy to implement and requires minimal resources such as interviews with local informants. As used in this study, the agreement between the key informants was more (37.5%) in the villages than in Nouna town (27.3%). CBI management unit only received nine complaints from villagers who considered that some households had been wrongly identified. Among the poorest, the annual enrolment increased from 18 households (1.1%) in 2006 to 186 (11.1%) in 2007 after subsidies. CWR is an alternative methodology to identify poor households and was found to be more cost and time efficient compared to other methods. It could be successfully replicated in low-income countries with similar contexts. Moreover, targeted subsidies had a positive impact on enrolment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the outcome of health reform implemented in Colombia in 1993. It discusses changes to health institutions as well as the difficulties of transferring funding from supply- to demand-side channels. It evaluates the impact of the subsidized health plan on the poor, particularly on their self-reported health status, consumption of nonhealth goods, and labor force participation. It also analyzes the impact of reform on expenditure and hospital efficiency.

Copyright of Canadian Tax Journal / Revue Fiscale Canadienne is the property of Canadian Tax Foundation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)