Competitive health insurance : the implications of removing the VHI monopoly

The role of voluntary insurance in financing health-care, and the appropriate market structures for an efficient health insurance system deserve careful consideration by the Government in deciding on its response to current problems of health finance and to the problems of the insurance sector post 1992. It seems likely that the response to both problems will take the form of an attempt to shore up the protected position of the V.H.I. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that such a response would be mistaken given the implications of monopoly and competitive structure in health insurance.

A hard copy is available in UCD Library at GEN 330.08 IR/UNI