Purchasing insurance is rationally justifiable and risk aversion can be formally evaluated.
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The retrieved literature supports the rational justification and formal evaluation of risk aversion through studies on insurance purchasing intentions and empirical estimates of relative risk aversion in economics.
<h4>Background</h4>Given increasing numbers of people experiencing transitions in health insurance due to declines in employer-sponsored insurance and changes in health policy, the understanding and application of health insurance terms and concepts (health insurance literacy) may be important for navigating use of health care. The study objective was to systematically review evidence on the relationship between health insurance literacy and health care utilization.<h4>Methods</h4>Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsychInfo, Cochrane Library, and reference lists of published literature were searched in August 2019. Quantitative, qualitative, and intervention studies that assessed the association of health insurance literacy as the exposure and health care utilization as the outcome were identified, without language or date restrictions. Outcomes were independently assessed by 2-3 reviewers.<h4>Results</h4>Twenty-one studies including a total of 62,416 subjects met inclusion criteria: three interventional trials, two mixed-methods studies, and sixteen cross-sectional studies. Ten of thirteen preventive care studies suggested that higher health insurance literacy was associated with greater utilization of primary care and other preventive services. Eight of nine studies of care avoidance demonstrated that individuals with lower health insurance literacy were more likely to delay or avoid care. A few studies had mixed results regarding the utilization of emergency department, inpatient, and surgical care.<h4>Discussion</h4>The emerging literature in this area suggests that health insurance literacy is an important factor that can enable effective utilization of health care, including primary care and preventive services. However, the literature is limited by a paucity of studies using validated tools that broadly measure health insurance literacy (rather than testing knowledge of specific covered services). Improving health insurance literacy of the general public and increasing plain language communication of health insurance plan features at the point of health care navigation may encourage more effective and cost-conscious utilization.
We collect 1,021 estimates from 92 studies that use the consumption Euler equation to measure relative risk aversion and that disentangle it from intertemporal substitution. We show that calibrations of risk aversion are typically larger than estimates thereof. Moreover, reported estimates are typically larger than the underlying risk aversion because of publication bias. After correction for the bias, the literature suggests a mean risk aversion of 1 in economics and 2--7 in finance contexts. The reported estimates are systematically driven by the characteristics of data (frequency, dimension, country, stockholding) and utility (functional form, treatment of durables). To obtain these results we use nonlinear techniques to correct for publication bias and Bayesian model averaging techniques to account for model uncertainty.
Recently, the phenomenon of population ageing and its impact on the insurance industry has garnered increasing global attention. However, a notable gap in scholarly research persists in understanding the nuanced effects of ageing on consumer behaviour and insurance purchase intentions. This study maps the current academic evidence on how ageing influences individual consumers' insurance decisions. Using a scoping review methodology aligned with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for scoping reviews and Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, 44 articles out of 1082 from four databases-Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Emerald Insight-are reviewed. The results reveal a rising interest in this research area, with China emerging as a significant contributor. The focus is predominantly on Theory of Planned Behavior, quantitative methods, questionnaire survey, regression analysis, older population, and general health insurance. Variables capturing the impact of ageing, beyond demographic information, include family-related, risk-related, and expectation-related factors. This study highlights the current state of research on ageing's effect on insurance purchase intentions and offers valuable insights and directions for future research.
This study examines how societal ageing influences insurance purchasing intentions, addressing the prevailing emphasis on elderly consumers and the limited conceptual integration of ageing within existing behavioural models. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic review was conducted using an initial search (forty-three studies) supplemented by a top-up search in November 2025 that identified fourteen additional articles. Using the theories-contexts-characteristics-methods (TCCM) framework, the review synthesises theoretical, contextual, characteristic, and methodological patterns in this field. The findings indicate that although variables such as risk perception, anticipated dependence, and interpersonal influence are frequently examined, ageing itself is seldom conceptualised as an explanatory construct, constraining theoretical precision and practical relevance. To bridge this gap, the study introduces ageing risks (AR)-capturing perceived financial, health, and intergenerational uncertainties associated with demographic ageing-and illustrates its integration within the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The review highlights the need to validate AR empirically, extend research to non-elderly populations and underexplored regions, and broaden methodological approaches. These contributions strengthen theoretical development and inform more responsive insurance strategies in ageing societies.
Designing health insurance information for the Medicare beneficiary: a policy synthesis. Can Medicare beneficiaries make rational and informed decisions about their coverage under the Medicare program? Recent policy developments in the Medicare program have been based on the theory of competition in medical care. One of the key assumptions of the competitive model is the free flow of adequate information, enabling the consumer to make an informed choice from among the various sellers of a particular product. Options for Medicare beneficiaries in supplementing their basic Medicare coverage include the purchase of private supplementary insurance policies or enrollment in a Medicare HMO. These consumers, in a complex health insurance market, have only limited information available to them because many health plans do not make adequate comparable product information available. Moreover, since the introduction of the Medicare HMO option, the long-range plan for management of the Medicare budget has become based on the large-scale voluntary enrollment of beneficiaries into capitated health plans.
Among these purposes are assisting members in search of employment; assisting members during slack seasons of trade; granting temporary relief to members in distressed circumstances; purchase of coals and other necessaries to be supplied to members; relief or maintenance in case of lameness, blindness, insanity, paralysis, or bodily hurt through accidents; also, the assurance against loss by disease or death of cattle employed in trade or agriculture; relief in case of shipwreck or loss or damage to boats or nets; and societies for social intercourse, mutual helpfulness, mental and moral improvement, rational recreation, &c., called working-men’s clubs. Class 13 was composed of cattle insurance societies. These are the thirteen classes into which the commissioners divided registered friendly societies. There were 26,034 societies enrolled or certified under the various acts for friendly societies in force between 1793 and 1855; and, as we have seen, 21,875 societies registered under the act of 1855 before the 1st January 1876, when the act of 1875 came into operation. The total therefore of societies to which a legal constitution had been given was 47,909.
We studied the potential of community-based health insurance (CHI) to contribute to the performance of health financing systems. The international empirical evidence is analysed on the basis of the three health financing subfunctions as outlined in the World Health Report 2000: revenue collection, pooling of resources and purchasing of services. The evidence indicates that achievements of CHI in each of these subfunctions so far have been modest, although many CHI schemes still are relatively young and would need more time to develop. We present an overview of the main factors influencing the performance of CHI on these financing subfunctions and discuss a set of proposals to increase CHI performance. The proposals pertain to the demand for and the supply of health care in the community; to the technical, managerial and institutional set-up of CHI; and to the rational use of subsidies.
Strategic purchasing is an essential health financing function. This paper compares the strategic purchasing practices of Thailand’s two tax-financed health insurance schemes, the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) and the Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS), and identifies factors contributing to successful universal health coverage outcomes by analysing the relationships between the purchaser and government, providers and members. The study uses a cross-sectional mixed-methods design, including document review and interviews with 56 key informants. The Comptroller General Department (C
Tens of millions of people are currently choosing health coverage on a state or federal health insurance exchange as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We examine how well people make these choices, how well they think they do, and what can be done to improve these choices. We conducted 6 experiments asking people to choose the most cost-effective policy using websites modeled on current exchanges. Our results suggest there is significant room for improvement. Without interventions, respondents perform at near chance levels and show a significant bias, overweighting out-of
The American Association of Nurse Attorneys recommends that all nurses engaged in the practice of nursing insure themselves against liability to third parties arising out of that practice. To make an informed decision whether to purchase individual insurance and how much to purchase, each school nurse must personally evaluate a multitude of factors. Each school nurse should also understand the various types of insurance policies available and how an individual policy is affected by coverage provided through the school district policy or self-insurance program. In certain states, school nurses also may be protected by the legal doctrine of sovereign immunity. This article provides answers to some of the questions frequently posed by school nurses about individual professional liability insurance.
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