On medical insurance: considerations based on foreign experience

Abstract

The health care organization in Russia is similar to the same in Great Britain where exists public medical care system. At the same time, Russian health care, being insurance, bear resemblance with German health care. The significant characteristic of insurance medicine in Germany is availability of mechanism ofprice ofpoint that is shortly discussed in this article. The application of this mechanism leads to that in overall country the price of medical service is approximately the same independently of insurer. Accordingly, most of private medical practitioners and medical organizations receive all insured patients. The similar mechanism can successfully function only on the assumption of conscientiousness and higher level of professional knowledge of physicians who are not to prescribe pharmaceuticals and diagnostic procedures without sufficient indications. The adoption of mechanism ofpoint price by Russian health care would permit to redirect part of patients insured by mandatory medical insurance to private medical centers and private medical practitioners.