NEJM Perspectives Examine Dutch Health Care System

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 14 Dec 2007 - 9:00 PST

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"Dutch Doctors and Their Patients - Effect of Health Care Reform in the Netherlands," New England Journal of Medicine: The NEJM perspective -- by J. André Knottnerus, a professor of general practice at the University of Maastricht and president of the Health Council of the Netherlands, and Gabriël ten Velden, who before his recent death, was deputy executive director of the council -- examines the effects of Dutch health insurance system reforms implemented in January 2006. Under the system, public health insurers were privatized or merged with private health insurers and all citizens are required to obtain insurance. The authors also examine how competition and increased negotiations among health care providers, insurers and consumers have changed the relationships among the groups (Knottnerus/ten Velden, NEJM, 12/13).

"Going Dutch -- Managed-Competition Health Insurance in the Netherlands," NEJM: In the perspective, Alain Enthoven, a professor of management at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and Wynand van de Ven, a professor of health insurance at the Erasmus University Department of Health Policy and Management, discuss key elements of the Dutch health system. The perspective also discusses how a Dutch model of managed-competition health insurance would work in the U.S. (Enthoven/van de Ven, NEJM, 12/13).

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