The economics of medical insurance in Iraq in the period 2015-2023 AD
Feryal Salih Mahdi
The recent global recession and concurrent rise in job loss makes unemployment insurance (UI) increasingly important to smooth patterns of consumption and keep households from experiencing extreme material poverty. In this paper, we undertake a realist review to produce a critical understanding of how and why UI policies impact on poverty and health in different welfare state contexts between 2015 and 2022 in Iraq. We relied on literature and expert interviews to generate an initial theory and set of propositions about how UI might alleviate poverty and mental distress. We then systematically located and synthesized peer-review studies to glean supportive or contradictory evidence for our initial propositions. Poverty and among unemployed and even the employed, are impacted by generosity of UI in terms of eligibility, duration and wage replacement levels. The research relied on the analytical descriptive approach by analyzing statistical data and time-series financial and economic indicators in order to obtain and analyze results. A series of laboratory studies of insurance decision making shows that people buy more insurance against events having a moderately high probability of inflicting a relatively small loss than against low-probability, high-loss events. This research provides insight into other, often puzzling, and facts about people's insurance behavior. Relevance for public policy is discussed.
Feryal Salih Mahdi. The economics of medical insurance in Iraq in the period 2015-2023 AD. Int J Foreign Trade Int Bus 2024;6(2):10-17. DOI: 10.33545/26633140.2024.v6.i2a.110