Recent Changes in Dutch Health Insurance: Individual Mandate or Social Insurance?


 

Publication Date:

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Author(s): K.G.H. Okma

Research Area: Health

Type: White Paper

Abstract:

Dutch health insurance changed dramatically in 2006 with the abolition of the sickness fund insurance that had covered wage earners and their dependents for over 100 years. A new form of population-wide health insurance replaced the former public and private health insurance systems.



This paper analyzes the new insurance model and its origins in earlier reform efforts. The article begins with some of the particular characteristics of social policy-making in the Netherlands and the core features of the 2006 health insurance reform. It then examines the changing positions of the main stakeholders in Dutch health care.