Aida Isabel Tavares

By Aida Isabel Pereira Tavares

The quest of the researcher to classify national health systems into homogeneous groups has a long history. In this paper, the last 30 years are divided in two periods (1985–2000 and 2000–2015) in order to present and briefly describe the most influential national health system typologies.

Part of the book: Advances in Health Management

By Aida Isabel Tavares

Part of the book: Universal Health Coverage

By Aida Isabel Tavares and Pedro Lopes Ferreira

Universal health coverage has been gaining a wider attention since the beginning of the 2000s, and it has become an ideological reference for health systems across the world. Funding universal health coverage has been a major challenge faced by governments. Not only funding has to be efficient to guarantee people’s access to health services when they are needed, but also it has to ensure equity across people in the country. Aging implies a new constraint to funding as more people contribute less to the collection of financial revenues and more people are in need of healthcare, due to morbidity and end-of-life needs. This chapter aims to present the concept of universal health coverage and LTC and also to discuss how it may be financed under the current scenario of demographic aging and increasing demand for long-term care.

Part of the book: Universal Health Coverage

By Aida Isabel Tavares and Carolina Freitas

The demographic phenomenon of ageing is speeding up in Europe. People live longer and so the prevalence of dementia increases, including Alzheimer’s disease. This is a progressive disease in which people slowly lose their cognitive and physical capacities until death takes over. Alzheimer’s disease not only imposes a very high burden in the affected person but also inflicts a high and overwhelming burden of the caregivers. The carers’ burden includes health deterioration, labour damaging and loses and financial and social costs, while the care provided is not well valued. The aim of this chapter is to review the main trends and concepts related to ageing, caregivers and Alzheimer’s disease. It also presents the economic burden associated with the disease and the monetary value of the care provided by caregivers in Portugal.

Part of the book: Evaluation of Health Services

By Aida Isabel Tavares

This chapter focuses on the interaction between lifestyles, health, and life satisfaction of Portuguese seniors. The aim of the analysis is to find the main determinants of health and life satisfaction and to verify the importance of lifestyle variables as determinants of health and life satisfaction. We used data collected by the National Health Survey of 2014 and estimated two ordered probits. The main results show that not all lifestyle variables are meaningful in explaining self-assessed health and life satisfaction. The determinants of the health status include education and income; however, it can be assumed that overall good health, family, or close people and income contribute to life satisfaction. A general profile of the Portuguese seniors is provided; however, the results obtained here are changing as a new scenario is emerging, generation X enters old age.

Part of the book: Who Wants to Retire and Who Can Afford to Retire?

By Aida Isabel Tavares

The Portuguese health system is mainly described as a National Health Service (NHS). In parallel with the NHS, there are some Bismarkean features, like those arising from the existence of occupation-based health insurance. On top of these two layers of health insurance coverage, there is a market for private health insurance on a voluntary basis, which older people may not be able to access. The purpose of this work is to estimate the main determinants for older people in Portugal to buy private health insurance since no previous studies have been published. We use data collected by the National Health Survey of 2014 and estimate a multivariate probit. The main results are aligned with previous studies relating to income, education, and age. The role of the health status and behavior explaining the demand for private health insurance, in our results are mixed. People benefiting from parallel occupation-based insurance schemes are less likely to have a private voluntary health insurance policy. The results obtained in this work confirm that there is some inequality in health care access, to the detriment of older people.

Part of the book: Health Insurance

By Aida Isabel Tavares

The Portuguese health system is defined as a National Health Service with universal health coverage of the population and almost free access to health care at any point of delivery. Despite this, the percentage of people who report having voluntary private health insurance has increased from 16% to 20.5% between 2014 and 2019. This paper aims to estimate the main determinants for having voluntary private health insurance in 2014 and 2019. We use data collected by the National Health Survey of 2014 and 2019 to compare results. A logistic model is estimated to explain the decision to hold an insurance policy. The results show that despite the increase in the number of people with private health insurance, the determinants are similar. Except for the role of being male, having had flu vaccination and being unemployed, which became significant in 2019. The most relevant results are (i) people who benefit from health subsystems, (ii) people who report long waiting times for medical care, (iii) people who have been vaccinated against the flu, and (iv) people who report unmet health needs are less likely to have private health insurance. The results of this paper indicate some potential inequalities in access to health care.

Part of the book: Health Insurance Across Worldwide Health Systems