title: [The regulatory regime and the health insurance industry in Brazil].
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciências Sociais, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Rio de Janeiro, RJ. nilson@ensp.fiocruz.br
authors.forename: Nilson do Rosário
authors.initials: Ndo R
authors.lastname: Costa
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007348:Insurance, Health; D017149:Private Sector; D012926:Social Control, Formal