Dutch, Swiss Health Care Systems Have Problems, Opinion Piece States

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 20 Nov 2007 - 8:00 PDT

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The U.S., a "nation prone to love at first sight with seductive health care fixes, is now falling for the systems of the Netherlands and Switzerland," but "let's be careful ... before we latch on" to those systems, Regina Herzlinger, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. Herzlinger writes that both systems "share one terrific feature -- universal coverage." In addition, she writes, the "sick in both countries can afford to buy health insurance and also pay the same price," and private health insurers "compete in the market because they are paid more for sick enrollees through various risk-adjustment systems."

However, "the devil is in the details," Herzlinger writes. According to Herzlinger, the Dutch and Swiss "governments' micromanagement of the prices of insurers and providers" discourages innovation and "should be avoided, not emulated." She concludes, "Instead, government should help lower-income people, enforce transparency, prosecute fraud and abuse -- but otherwise get out of the way" (Herzlinger, Wall Street Journal, 11/19).

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