THE PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE MARKET IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Private health insurance serves three distinct functions in western European health systems. The first is as an alternative for mandatory (statutory) social health insurance arrangements. The second function is to supplement statutory insurance, providing coverage for services not covered by social insurance. A third function of private health insurance is to provide what can be termed complementary coverage, in which insured persons purchase additional private insurance even while they have to participate in existing social schemes.private health insurance, statutory health insurance, substitutive health insurance, complementary health insurance, supplementary health insurance.