Unfunded and mandatory funded pillars of the Hungarian pension system have been operating simultaneously since 1998. This reform, seen as paradigmatic, has undergone several changes in recent years, designed essentially to alter the pension parameters. Discourse on pension reform has become general again throughout the world. The pension debates in Hungary have focused less on the rising proportion of the elderly than on low employment and eligibility. Contributions to the debate these days are not about the question of an unfunded versus a funded system. The emphasis has repeatedly been on self-provision. The study analyses by means of survey data the extent of the various forms of self-provision. The survey shows that respondents have not typically made decisions of their own on the matter, for which they have limited (and sometimes false) information about the pension system and their life expectancy as pensioners. According to the authors, it is impermissibly optimistic to place excessive emphasis on people's ability to provide for themselves.
Everybody from the government and insurers to the providers and consumers these days is talking about market competition in health care. But what do they mean by it? Is everybody talking about the same things? The question is fundamental because various health-care players take part in shaping health policy, but little is said about how these players envisage the competition from their own point of view. The brief survey of experience in developed countries pays attention mainly to the examples of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany. Analysis of these shows that health-care competition in all of them is limited and great caution is needed in evaluating its results.
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