This paper analyzes the regulatory regime for health insurance and prepayment schemes in Brazil. It describes the ideas that have influenced the creation of the Agência Nacional de Saúde Suplementar-ANS (National Agency of Supplementary Health) in 2000, showing that the independent agency model was a direct result of the privatization process and of the induction of new competition mechanisms in a natural state monopoly. The paper concludes that the prepayment firms in Brazil are facing a new institutional environment as refers to their market entry or exit conditions.
Regulatory regime; Independent agency; Government failures; Health insurance industry; National heath system
