Healthcare Insurance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Healthcare Insurance - Essay Example They believe that healthcare insurance would assist them to minimize future health expenses to a great extent. As Cameron and McCallum (1995) point out, ‘income’ is the major potential element determining the demand for health insurance. It seems that low and high income groups are less likely to purchase health insurance. Low income groups may not have potential financial background to purchase health insurance whereas high income groups are reluctant to buy insurance due to increased tariffs. Price of the insurance and tax treatment of insurance are the other important factors affecting demand for health insurance (Avitabile, 2009). When the price of the insurance increases, the demand decreases, and once the price of the insurance drops the demand increases. The same trend is observed in case of tax treatment also. If the government or other competitive organizations adopt a strict approach towards tax treatment, the demand for insurance falls. In contrast, if the hea lthcare insurance is offered at concessional tax rates, more people will be ready to purchase it. This is a clear illustration of law of demand. It is also identified that healthcare expenditure may be a crucial element influencing the demand for insurance. Middle income groups may consider their past health expenditure data before making an insurance purchase decision. Finally, age also affects the demand for healthcare insurance. As compared to old aged people, youngsters are less likely to purchase healthcare insurance as they believe that they are less vulnerable to diseases. In the late XIX century, health insurance began to be available in the form of accident insurance in the United States (Obringer & Jeffries, n.d.). The trend continued until the end of the XIX century, and regulators considered health insurance as disability insurance. Before the US federal