The market reform in Dutch health care: Results, lessons and prospects

In 2006, the Netherlands embarked upon an ambitious reform of the Dutch health care system based upon the principles of regulated competition. Some 15 years later, it is an appropriate time to find out how this ‘market reform’ has worked out, and what the experience has been like for those involved in putting it into practice. The authors of this important new study review the reforms and their impact to date and ask whether the reforms merit being counted as a success. Did they alter the relationship between state, insurers, providers and patients? Has there been evidence of problems that market-based systems are often associated with, such as high administrative costs, restricted access to health care, rent-seeking, skimming and adverse selection? Whilst addressing these questions and suggesting possible answers, the authors also examine what can be learned from the Dutch experience with competition in health care and what changes might be expected in the near future in the Netherlands and more broadly, especially considering the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.