Files
Abstract
In times of increasing health care expenditure and insufficient cover provided by
publicly financed health systems additional, alternative methods of health care
financing become more and more considerable. The purpose of the paper is to
present the concept of Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) and possibilities of their
application in the health care systems of European countries. First, the author
describes the idea of MSAs and reviews positive and negative findings about the
effects of implementing this method into the health systems. Next, two main
approaches to the application of MSAs in health care financing are considered. In the
last part of the paper, the possibilities of introducing MSAs into health care systems
in European countries are discussed. The author takes into consideration the existing
health care financing conditions and other specific institutional, socio-economic and
cultural factors as the main determinants for successful designing and implementation
of the MSA scheme in a given country.