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Consumer Choice in Dutch Health Insurance after Reform

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Abstract

This article investigates the scope and effects of enhanced consumer choice in health insurance that is presented as a cornerstone of the new health insurance legislation in the Netherlands that will come into effect in 2006. The choice for choice marks the current libertarian trend in Dutch health care policymaking. One of our conclusions is that the scope of enhanced choice should not be overstated due to many legal and non-legal restrictions to it. The consumer choice advocates have great expectations of the impact of enhanced choice. A critical analysis of its impact demonstrates that these expectations may not become true and that enhanced consumer choice should not be perceived as the ‘magic bullet’ for many problems in health care.

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Notes

  1. In addition all insured must pay an income-related premium: 6% for employed persons and 4.4% for self-employed persons. The maximum income over which an income-related premium must be paid is €30,000. The income-related premium is set by the government.

  2. The only legal limit to private insurer autonomy followed from the Health Insurance Access Act (Wet Toegang op de Ziektekostenverzekering) which obligated private insurers to offer a standard policy the benefit catalogue and rate of which were set by the government. This health insurance scheme was introduced in 1984 as a kind of safety net for those who were not entitled for the Statutory Health Insurance Scheme but had access problems in private health insurance due to their (expected) poor health status.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Health Organisation, Policy and Economics, University of Maastricht, P.O. Box 616, 6200, MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Hans Maarse

  2. Centre for Ethics in Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Ruud Ter Meulen

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  1. Hans Maarse
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  2. Ruud Ter Meulen
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Correspondence to Hans Maarse.

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Maarse, H., Ter Meulen, R. Consumer Choice in Dutch Health Insurance after Reform. Health Care Anal 14, 37–49 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-006-0010-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-006-0010-z

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