| Popis: |
This chapter takes a European perspective to explores the main consequences of EU legislation on the strategic behaviour of private health insurers. Using quantitative data, it shows how changes led by the EU legislation in the insurers’ environment, in particular the public disengagement from health coverage, are creating a favourable environment for the emergence or development of more or less profitable national markets for private health insurance. Thus, the analysis of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) carried out in the private health insurance sector during the 2000s and 2010s and of their determinants shows how non-profit entities dominating the field in several EU countries tend to mimic for-profit insurers in terms of strategies and behaviours—with potential consequences for the provision of health benefits. |
