Boston, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/16/2013 -- OVERVIEW OF THE MEDICAL MARKET IN THE NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands has an advanced and open economy at the heart of the EU. GDP is the fifth largest in the eurozone, standing at US$838.9bn in 2013, equal to US$50,193 per capita. This makes the Netherlands one of the wealthier countries in the EU in per capita terms.

The Netherlands has a long history of providing accessible healthcare, although resources are comparatively low for a Western European country. A mandatory health insurance scheme was introduced in January 2006. This replaced the previous two-tier system and provides basic health insurance cover for acute care services with a separate scheme for long term medical care. The new health insurance act has substantially increased price competition amongst insurers and healthcare
providers resulting in one of the most market-oriented healthcare systems in Europe.

The economic downturn, which resulted in a 1.1% contraction in the economy in 2012, has further increased financial pressures on the health service, which ran up sizeable deficits in 2009 and 2010. In July 2013, the Health Ministry agreed a package of measures with healthcare providers to cut EUR1.0bn from forecast healthcare spending as part of the government's proposed EUR 6.0bn austerity programme. The agreement allows for a 1.5% rise in healthcare spending in 2014 and a 1.0% increase between 2015 and 2017. This would effectively more than half the current rate of healthcare expenditure growth, which increased by over 3.0% in 2012.

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Aside from the eight university hospitals that retain public status, almost all Dutch hospitals are private non-profit institutions. Whilst the hospital sector is dominated by non-profit organisations, the drive for efficiency is encouraging growth in a number of areas such as specialist clinics, prevention and screening and new forms of elderly care. These new sectors have proved attractive for commercial operators, although the non-profit sector has started to respond by developing its own services. The volume of routine elective surgery continues to increase albeit with strong downward pressure on costs. Independent treatment centres are continuing to increase their share of the market.

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