FRANCESCO PAOLUCCI
BEcon, MSc (University of Bologna), PhD (Erasmus)
Research Fellow, ACERH (ANU)
T: +61 2 6125 9155
E: Francesco.Paolucci@anu.edu.au

Francesco Paolucci is Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Economic Research on Health (ACERH) at The Australian National University (ANU).  Prior to taking up his current post in 2007, he held academic appointments as (visiting) researcher and lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Bologna, at the Institute of Health Economics and Management at the University of Oslo, and at iBMG at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam where he wrote his PhD thesis entitled ‘The design of basic and supplementary health care financing schemes: implications for efficiency and affordability’ under the supervision of Prof. W.P.M.M. van de Ven and Prof. F.T. Schut.  Since 2005, he has been a member of scientific committee of the International Health Economics Association (iHEA).  His teaching and research interests include health insurance, aged and long tem care (insurance), regulated competition, risk equalisation and risk selection, international comparisons of health care systems, HiT, and law and economics of competition policy in the health care sector.

Topics of his recent studies and academic interests include:

• Health Insurance
• Regulated Competition
• Risk-equalisation
• Risk-selection
• International Comparison of Health Care Financing Schemes
• Economic analysis of competition law (eg. EC-law) in health care (insurance) markets

He is currently working with ACERH colleagues on the economic analysis of regulation in the Australian voluntary health insurance market with a particular focus on the risk-equalisation system. In April 2007, the Australian Government introduced a risk-equalisation system (previously called a reinsurance system). With risk-equalisation, insurers receive risk-adjusted payments reflecting the health risk profile of their clients as closely as possible to avoid risk-selection. The research in this area focuses on the following questions:

1. How can the system of risk-adjusted payments be improved in Australia?

2. Which are the optimal regulatory tools that the government can adopt to discourage risk selection?

Selected Publications

Paolucci F, Health Care Financing and Insurance: Options for Design, Developments in Health Economics and Public Policy No.10, Springer, The Netherlands, 2010. (ISBN-13: 978-3-642-10793-1) (in press).

Strazdins L, Griffin AL, Broom DH, Banwell, C, Korda R, Dixon J, Shipley M, Paoloucci F, Esler M and Glover J, "Time scarcity: Another health inequity? Time-Space and Life-Course", Environment and Planning A (in press)

Armstrong J, Paolucci F and van de Ven WPPM, "Risk equalisation in voluntary health insurance markets", (Editorial) Health Policy, Vol.98 No.1, November 2010, pp.1-2. (Preview)

Connelly LB, Paolucci F, Butler JRG and Collins P, "Risk equalisation and voluntary health insurance markets: The case of Australia", Health Policy, Vol.98 No.1, November 2010, pp.3-14. (Preview)

Armstrong J, Paolucci F, McLeod H and van de Ven WPPM, "Risk Equalisation in Voluntary Health Insurance Markets in Three Countries", Health Policy, Vol.98 No.1, November 2010, pp.39-49. (Preview)

Armstrong J and Paolucci F, "Risk equalisation in Ireland and Australia: A simulation analysis to compare outcomes", Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Vol.35 No.4, October 2010, pp.521-38. (Abstract)

Baltussen R, Youngkong S, Paolucci F and Niessen L, "Multi-criteria decision analysis to prioritize health interventions: Capitalizing on first experiences", Health Policy, Vol.96 No.3, August 2010, pp.262-64. (Preview)

Paolucci F, Ergas H, Hannan T and Aarts J, "The Effectiveness of Health Informatics" in Stefane M. Kabene (ed.) Healthcare and the Effect of Technology: Developments, Challenges and Advancements, Medical Information Science Reference, Hershey PA, 2010, Ch.2. (download)

Paolucci F, Prinsze F, Stam PJA and van de Ven WPMM, "The potential premium range of risk-rating in competitive markets for supplementary health insurance ", International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics, Vol.9 No.3, September 2009, pp.243-58. (Abstract)

Stoelwinder JU and Paolucci F, "Sustaining Medicare through consumer choice of health funds: lessons from the Netherlands", Medical Journal of Australia, Vol.191 No.1, 6 July 2009, pp.30-32. (Abstract)

Paolucci F, Butler JRG and van de Ven WPMM, "Subsidising private health insurance in Australia: Why, how, and how to proceed?", Australian Centre for Economic Research on Health, Working Paper No.2, October 2008. (download)

Paolucci F, Schut FT, Beck K, Van de Voorden C, Gress S and Zmora I, "Supplementary health insurance as a tool for risk selection in mandatory basic health insurance markets", Health Economics, Policy and Law , Vol.2 No.2, April 2007, pp.173-92. (Abstract)

Paolucci F, den Exter A and van de Ven WPMM, "Solidarity in competitive health insurance markets: analysing the relevant EC legal framework", Health Economics, Policy and Law , Vol.1 No.2, April 2006, pp.107-26. (Abstract)