Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Coalminers, Accidents and Insurance in Late Nineteenth-Century England
- 2 The Costs and Benefits of Size in a Mutual Insurance System: The German Miners’
- 3 A New Welfare System: Friendly Societies in the Eastern Lombardy from 1860 to 1914
- 4 Economic Growth and Demand for Health Coverage in Spain: The Role of Friendly Societies (1870–1942)
- 5 Sickness Insurance and Welfare Reform in England and Wales, 1870–1914
- 6 From Sickness to Death: Revisiting the Financial Viability of the English Friendly Societies, 1875–1908
- 7 America's Rejection of Government Health Insurance in the Progressive Era: Implications for Understanding the Determinants and Achievements of Public Insurance of Health Risks
- 8 Medical Assistance Provided by La Conciliación, a Pamplona Mutual Assistance Association (1902–84)
- 9 In it for the Money? Insurers, Sickness Funds and the Dominance of Not-for-Profit Health Insurance in the Netherlands
- 10 Belgian Mutual Health Insurance and the Nation State
- Notes
- Index
9 - In it for the Money? Insurers, Sickness Funds and the Dominance of Not-for-Profit Health Insurance in the Netherlands
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Coalminers, Accidents and Insurance in Late Nineteenth-Century England
- 2 The Costs and Benefits of Size in a Mutual Insurance System: The German Miners’
- 3 A New Welfare System: Friendly Societies in the Eastern Lombardy from 1860 to 1914
- 4 Economic Growth and Demand for Health Coverage in Spain: The Role of Friendly Societies (1870–1942)
- 5 Sickness Insurance and Welfare Reform in England and Wales, 1870–1914
- 6 From Sickness to Death: Revisiting the Financial Viability of the English Friendly Societies, 1875–1908
- 7 America's Rejection of Government Health Insurance in the Progressive Era: Implications for Understanding the Determinants and Achievements of Public Insurance of Health Risks
- 8 Medical Assistance Provided by La Conciliación, a Pamplona Mutual Assistance Association (1902–84)
- 9 In it for the Money? Insurers, Sickness Funds and the Dominance of Not-for-Profit Health Insurance in the Netherlands
- 10 Belgian Mutual Health Insurance and the Nation State
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The introduction of the Zorgverzekeringswet (Health Insurance Act) on 1 January 2006 ushered in a new era of health insurance in the Netherlands. The old dual system of social and private health insurance was replaced by a social health insurance scheme under private law. With the reform the official ban on profit-making in health care was lifted. Opponents of this market-oriented change feared that by allowing profit, long-held principles as social solidarity, equal access to health care and ultimately the quality of care itself would be subverted.
Not surprisingly, they depicted the reform as a victory for the commercial health insurance industry and their neo-liberal political supporters. However, if we take a look at the health insurance carriers that were active in the Netherlands around the time of the reform, virtually all of them were not-for-profit entities. This suggests that, contrary to popular belief, even the alleged stronghold of commercial insurers, the private health insurance industry, was heavily influenced by not-for-profit thinking. But how did this come to be that way?
This chapter will attend that question. I will examine in what way the not-for-profit health insurance ideology, personified in sickness funds and their (social) health insurance scheme, has influenced for-profit health insurers in the Netherlands during the twentieth century. I will conclude that both the government and sickness funds, though not always intentionally and not always in a coordinated manner, have tried to either neutralize or incorporate for-profit insurers in the broader system of health care financing.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Welfare and Old Age in Europe and North AmericaThe Development of Social Insurance, pp. 167 - 188Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014