On Health, Ageing and Insurance

Abstract

For the last 7 years, The Geneva Association has been engaged in a new research programme on Health and Ageing, the main objective pursued being to better understand the role of demographics, new technologies and insurance in the management of health risks in society. This special edition of The Geneva Papers, the third in our bi-annual health and ageing series, is dedicated to two main issues: the impact of an ageing population on health care and health systems, and the role and development of private health insurance markets in managing health risks. This editorial aims at introducing the reader to the areas covered and its policy context so as to clarify, when possible, the major issues at stake. It is increasingly being recognized that higher standards of living and better access to information and education give rise to the improvement of the overall health of populations in most industrialized countries. Not only are people living to an older age, but they are also likely to be enjoying healthier lives. Further evidence indicates that part of these health improvements can be attributed to the development in health technology and to the investment in health care. Hence, it is important to disentangle the main forces behind the efficiency of health care to produce its intended outcomes, namely the underlying changes in the demographic composition of the population, the role of insurance mechanisms as well as the role of several public or private incentives. The increase in the number of people living to an older age appears to be a strong driver of the growing health care consumption, even if experts still propose competing theories on how future health expenditure will look like for some areas of health utilization. In this respect, demographics and social change clearly point towards the expansion of long-term care needs. Reduction of family size and a higher rate of women participation in the labour market displace some appreciable effects on caregiving conditions. Indeed a large amount of long-term care was informally provided in the past, typically by other family carers, and is now increasingly being provided in return for monetary compensation. Yet, the organization of both the delivery and the