Wagstaff, AdamMoreno-Serra, Rodrigo2012-03-302012-03-302009Journal of Health Economics01676296https://hdl.handle.net/10986/5014The post-Communist transition to social health insurance in many of the Central and Eastern European and Central Asian countries provides a unique opportunity to try to answer some of the unresolved issues in the debate over the relative merits of social health insurance and tax-financed health systems. This paper employs regression-based generalizations of the difference-in-differences method on panel data from 28 countries for the period 1990-2004. We find that, controlling for any concurrent provider payment reforms, adoption of social health insurance increased national health spending and hospital activity rates, but did not lead to better health outcomes.ENNational Government Expenditures and Health H510Analysis of Health Care Markets I110Health: Government PolicyRegulationPublic Health I180Economic Development: Human ResourcesHuman DevelopmentIncome DistributionMigration O150Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer EconomicsHealthEducation and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty P360Journal ArticleWorld Bank