The interaction of consumers and insurance companies creates characteristic problems that must be properly managed by market participants and government in order for viable insurance markets to exist.  The goal of this seminar is to thoroughly explore how the economic behavior of insurance markets is applicable to understanding practical problems of public health financing and private health insurance, where market behaviour problems most affect the ability of insurance companies to thrive. 

The seminar begins by discussing the health insurance environment and insurance market behavior.  An understanding of environment and market behavior is vital to an understanding of how insurance companies design their health insurance products and manage their product portfolios.  Concepts and ideas from this discussion are then applied to the insurance market behavior framework in order for us to analyze private medical expense and voluntary health insurance products and their key risk management tools.

The seminar is immediately preceded by an EAA-seminar on Insurance Economic Market Behavior, which explores the market behaviour concepts used to analyze public and private health insurance markets.  This previous seminar is an important resource for a thorough understanding of material discussed in this seminar.