Which countries with single payer healthcare ban duplicative coverage?

Question

A single payer healthcare system is a system where all citizens have government health insurance. Now most countries with single payer healthcare allow people to buy supplemental private insurance, though some have restrictions on what that supplemental insurance can cover.

In any case, several 2020 Democratic Presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, support a single-payer healthcare system where supplemental private insurance plans are not allowed to offer duplicative coverage, i.e. they’re not allowed to cover any of the same benefits that the government plan covers. They’re only allowed to cover benefits not covered by the government plan.

My question is, which countries with single payer healthcare have a similar ban on duplicative coverage? I think Canada may be one. Are there any others?

Answer 1

Here is a document from OECD Health Statistic detailing the kinds of private health insurances available in countries where public health insurance is provided. The document defines three kinds of private health insurance:

• Duplicate where coverage is available for risks also covered by public health insurance. This would allow someone to choose to e.g. have their operation done in a private clinic.
• Complementary where coverage is available for additional costs of a healthcare treatment partially covered by public healthcare - for example if public healthcare only covered 90% of the cost this would pay for the other 10%
• Supplementary This would cover treatments not provided by public healthcare.

The coverage the question asks about is Duplicate. The list of countries where duplicate coverage is not available is:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Hungary
• Japan
• Korea
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey

I've omitted some edge cases, for example where health coverage is provided by private insurers but is mandated by the state.

Answer 2

Canada is indeed one.

Under most provincial and territorial laws, private insurers are restricted from offering coverage that duplicates that of the publicly funded plans, but they can compete in the supplementary coverage market.

Countries where it is permitted include Finland, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom, Australia and France.

Duplicate insurance is available in many countries, including Finland, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom. In some places it attracts a large share of the population, as in Australia, where nearly 45% of citizens hold this type of insurance. In other countries, its role is marginal because of competition from public health insurance, especially where waiting lists are almost non-existent, as in France.

Answer 3

For Denmark a lot of companies have an extra health insurance. It e.g. means workers can get an operation faster or get something that isn't covered (e.g. physiotherapy).

I don't know about other European countries