Insurance directives and the single market: Towards a trivialisation of private health insurance?

Abstract

This chapter retraces the complex adoption of the three generations of insurance directives between 1973 and 1992, which aimed to build a European market in this industry. After the relative success of the first generation directives, the Commission Directorate-General in charge of the dossier managed to produce more efficient texts by using the connection with the overall single market project and the case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). This historical process explains why insurance has been treated with the same pattern as other financial services. It also explains why the characteristics of health insurance have only been incorporated at the margin and through resistance or initiatives from two countries with significant political weight: France and Germany. Finally, the texts have made an important contribution to bringing private health insurance players in line with market standards, mainly where they were furthest away from them.