Spending on healthcare services covered by insurance has remained within its budget this year, according to calculations by Achmea, the country’s biggest heath insurance company, in Wednesday’s Financieele Dagblad.

The company bases its claim on its first six month figures. Until now, spending has gone over budget by some 5% to 8% a year.
The insurance company says spending on family doctors, medicine and hospitals will rise between 2% and 5% this year. The company had estimated the increase at 4.5%.
This means the one-tier health insurance system with competition between insurers and healthcare institutions is working, Achmea told the paper.
Election
‘We are now going to see the fruits of our labours. Let us not get rid of this system now,’ Achmea’s financial chief Gerard van Olphen told the FD. Healthcare is a central issue in the election campaign and parties on the left want to stop competition between healthcare providers.
The €100m lower spending on primary healthcare is due to tough contracts signed between insurers and pharmacists and better prices for medical aids. Savings on physiotherapy and transport have also helped, he said.
Other health insurers paint a similar picture, the FD says. However, the results of efforts to cut spending on hospital care are not so clear, partly due to the lag time in invoicing.
Labour leader Diederick Samsom told the FD the figures are not proof of the power of market forces. ‘Rather, they show what can be done if you make agreements with each other. You do not need competition between hospitals to achieve this.’
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