Talk:Equalization pool

The Netherlands

regarding this:

As a result, this system, which was first authorised in 1990 to help improve quality, brought private health insurers to the market for the first time since 1941

Living in the Netherlands, I don't think that is quite correct, but I'm not sure (I was 8 in 1990). Could you give a quote or a page number from the WHO report where that is stated? Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 13:58, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Sure. Box 6.6 on page 138 of 215 (using the PDF page numbers). Reading on a bit more elsewhere today (in fact in the other referenced document) it states that the Netherlands is planning more privatization of health in 2006. That document was written in 2004 so I have no idea if that was implemented. Maybe you can help us and find out :=) Like all these things, theory and practice may get mixed up and what looks like a good idea in theory may not be so in practice. I'd be interested to know more about the health system in Holland and if you know a good web site in English that you could tell me about that would be great.--Tom (talk) 15:15, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that looks fine. I'll see if I can dig up something about dutch healthcare. I'll give you a description of how it works now from my own knowledge: Since januari 2006, (according to dutch wikipedia) we have a healthcare system where everyone has a compulsitory minimal health insurance. All insurance companies are obliged to provide a package with a defined set of insured treatments. There is an income dependent allowance to make sure everyone can pay for their healthcare insurance. On top of the standard package, most (all?) insurers offer additional packages to cover aditional treatments, like dental insurance, physiotherapy, etc. These packages are optional. Before that system (and aparently since 1990) there were two seperate systems: private insurance and public ensurance. The public ensurance was paid for by a specific income tax. Everyone earning less than a certain treshold income could make use of the public insurance system. Anyone over that treshold was obliged to have private insurance. I can only assume that there was no private insurance before 1990, odd as it may sound. Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 15:31, 18 January 2008 (UTC)