Private Health Insurance and Plans Advisory Committee: reflections from Georg Simmel

Abstract

The Private Health Insurance and Plans Advisory Committee is a social participation committee of the Private Health Insurance and Plans Regulatory Agency which includes representatives of different social groups with diverse interests. These groups are often in conflict in defense of their interests and goals. In this sense, as the Advisory Committee presents many conflicts, this theoretical study discusses how the contributions of Georg Simmel may be useful in understanding the dynamics of such instance as this author sees conflict as a form of social interaction that combines and synthesizes both approach and avoidance tendencies, consensus and dissent, producing a multiplicity of collective arrangements. This study concludes that Georg Simmel’s contributions can help in understanding this Advisory Committee by revealing that the conflicts that have occurred in this instance have integrating and differentiating functions. It also highlights the importance of the role of Regulatory Agency in the Advisory Committee, that is, the function of the regulatory agency can be understood from the perspective of Simmel as an “impartial” element that may be able to modify all the interacting conflicting situation as a conflict mediator seeking to defend public interests, the primary mission of the Regulatory Agency.