Chapter 1: Introduction: The European Union, the Insurance Industry and the Public-Private Mix in Healthcare.- Part 1: The Political Roots of EU Insurance Legislation.- Chapter 2: Insurance Directives and the Single Market: towards a trivialization of Private Health Insurance?.- Chapter 3: Solvency II, the European Government of Insurance Industry and Private Health Insurance.- Part 2: The Impact of the European Union Private Health Insurance.- Chapter 4: The Uncertain and Differentiated Impact of EU Law on National (private) Health Insurance Regulations.- Chapter 5: An increasing homogenisation of Private Health Insurers under Solvency II?.- Part 3: Shifting the public-private mix in healthcare? Multifaceted paths towards Europeanization.- Chapter 6: Private Health Insurance in Belgium: Marketization Crowded Out?.- Chapter 7: Europeanised, marketised but still governed by the State? Private Health Insurance in France.- Chapter8: Ireland: The Ambiguous Role of the Health Insurance Market.- Chapter 9: The Dutch Way: Experimenting with Competition in the Healthcare system.- Chapter 10: In between the market and public health insurance: a place for occupational welfare in Europe? 

Research has paid little attention to date on how European Union law and regulation affect both the public-private mix in healthcare and the organization of private health insurance as an industry. Filling this gap, this collective book provides insights on the political economy of EU insurance regulation, its impact on private health insurers and on its interactions with domestic healthcare policy-making in four countries. Assembling original contributions drafted by a multidisciplinary team, Private Health Insurance and the European Union offers a thorough examination of a largely unrecognized source of EU influence in healthcare – and sheds a new light on the role played by private actors in social policy.

Chapter 1 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Cyril Benoît is CNRS Researcher in Political Science at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po, Paris, France.

Marion Del Sol is Full Professor of Law at the University of Rennes 1, France, and a Research Fellow at the West Institute – Law and Europe (IODE).

Philippe Martin is CNRS Research Professor of Law at the Centre for Comparative Labour Law and Social Security (COMPTRASEC), University of Bordeaux, France.

“This book offers a sharp and comprehensive overview of the ongoing creeping privatization of healthcare and how it is shaped by the European Union through the making of a European insurance market. The chapters investigate both the top down and bottom up dynamics of marketization and are thus of interest not only for students of healthcare but also of the Europeanisation of public policy more broadly. In times of global pandemics where the healthcare sector is facing major challenges, this book could not be more timely”.
—Amandine Crespy, Associate Professor of Politics Science, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
“This comparative study of private health insurance in Europe shines a welcome light on an intricate and poorly understood topic of great consequence. Private insurance schemes vary widely, with distinctive roles and regulatory frameworks in the member states and at the EU level. In some systems, their operation belies egalitarian promises of the broaderhealth system. Member state and European reforms in the sector rightly awaken fears that private insurance will undermine social systems. This comparative analysis demystifies the complex world of private
health insurance regulation while making clear the ways in which private insurance, and even well-intentioned policy reforms, can create inequality and inefficiency in health care”.
—Scott Greer, Professor of Management and Health Policy, University of Michigan, USA
“Private Health Insurance and the European Union explores the complex dialogue at European and national level between market and public health contrasting logics. This interdisciplinary book, which is a unique collection of theoretical and empirical research papers, shows that choices made about private health insurance greatly influence the nature of the coverage. The book underlines the ambiguity of the interactions between public and private stakeholders and at the same time questions therole of the latter. Researchers, practitioners and students in the fields of social protection, insurance, healthcare and EU-policy making will find invaluable
information and elements of analysis in this research project”.
—Jean-Philippe Lhernould, Professor of Law, Université de Poitiers, France​

Examines EU law and regulation on private health insurance at a national and supra-national level Explains how and why EU legislation has often collided with incompatible legislation in member states Shows how health insurance has become increasingly important and connected to EU policy-making

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