The Regulation of Private Health Insurance

Abstract

This paper examines the current role of health insurance regulation and the role that it could play in a reformed health care system. It begins by exploring the nature of health insurance and alternative approaches to its regulation. It next considers the current status of first state and then federal health insurance regulation, both describing the development of health insurance regulation and examining arguments in support of and in opposition to regulatory interventions. Finally, it considers the kind of insurance regulation that will be needed in a reformed health care system, as well as the question of whether authority for insurance regulation should be placed at the federal or state level.

Keywords: health insurance, regulations, reformed health care, regulatory interventions, insurance, coverage, insurance contract