Financing the Public Health Care System

The study analyses how the public health care system is financed in Austria and discusses alternative and supplementary ways and means of obtaining additional funds. It investigates the yield and distributive effect if the ceiling on insurable earnings were either raised or abolished altogether and if the mandatory contribution were extended beyond the income from gainful employment to the full range of income types. In a second line, the study looks into the options, problems and quantitative effect of raising the share of financing from tax sources and of converting the employers' contributions to the health insurance scheme into a net output tax.