Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Alistair H. | Delivered December 7, 2019

Private Health Insurance Companies

Goals

To provide a list of innovative benefits provided by private health insurance companies such as tests (such as access to genetic testing), medical devices (such as 'smart' implants) and pharmaceuticals (such as new drug therapies). Additionally, to compare the coverage offered by private health insurance companies in their policies and provide examples of private health insurance companies that cover innovative medicine. For each private health insurance company, we will provide the name, turnover, number of policyholders, and which innovative benefits are offered. Most likely this information will be obtained from countries with high rates of private health insurance companies such as Slovenia, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Denmark. We will exclude private health insurance companies from Ireland and any companies limited to reimbursement of costs or faster access to providers/treatments also covered by the public health insurance system. The end goal is to produce a high-level benchmarking across several markets for the range of innovative medicine coverage.

Early Findings

Innovative Benefits Offered by Private Health Insurance CompaniesMore than 90% of the private health insurance companies in the US provide coverage benefits for the cost of cochlear implant surgery and related services.
In the Netherlands, people opt for supplementary private health insurance for coverage of alternative therapies. 
Alternative and complementary healthcare procedures such as acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, osteopathy and so on are well-established in the Netherlands. In order to access these, individuals have to purchase supplementary private health insurance coverage modules in addition to their basic health coverage. 
Private Health Insurance CompaniesGermany has slightly more than 40 private health insurance companies. 
Some of the best-known private health insurance companies in Germany include Allianz Private Krankenversicherung, AXA, DKV, Debeka
 and Deutsche Krankenversicherung. 
Some of the largest private health insurance companies in Belgium include Aetna International, Allianz Care, Bupa Global, Cigna Global, and Globality Health. 
There are more than 150 private health insurance companies in the Netherlands with some of the largest being Allianz Care, Bupa Global, Cigna Global, and Clements.