Definition
Health insurance is the predominant method of paying for healthcare services in most healthcare systems. The term health insurance is often used to describe different forms of insurance such as public insurance (through either social insurance or tax financing) or private health insurance.
Overview
There is not a single form of health insurance covering all types of healthcare services, such as hospitals, physicians, prescription drugs, and long-term care. The combinations of different sources of health insurance coverage for any individual can vary both within and across different countries. Most insurance contracts do not provide individuals full coverage as the policy will likely include one (or more) types of cost-sharing mechanisms, such as deductibles, coinsurance, co-payments, maximum expenditure limit, or a coverage limit.
In many...
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McLeod, L., Ariizumi, H. (2021). Health Insurance. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22009-9_990
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22009-9_990
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