The Netherlands has universal health insurance -- and it's all private
How the Dutch harnessed the market to cover everybody.
By Dylan Scott@dylanlscottdylan.scott@vox.com Jan 17, 2020, 8:00am EST
Photographs by Marlena Waldthausen for Vox
NIJMEGEN, Netherlands Dr. Elise Nillesen walks briskly toward a compact SUV striped in red and yellow, the evening twilight fading. She slides into the passenger seat, stethoscope tucked in her handbag and a small pharmacy in the trunk, and heads off into the chilly November night.
With her driver, Henry, who is trained in basic medical care, Nillesen roves the small Dutch city of Nijmegen as a one-woman primary health care clinic. Once they leave the hospital building that serves as home base, where Henry has set up a makeshift bed so he can catch some sleep between calls, they wont return for hours.
The night starts at a block of rowhouses where a man is enduring severe pain. Nillesen recommends some diagnostic tests and tells him to call his regular doctor in the morning, to whom she will also send notes.
En route back to the hospital, she gets a new call: A middle-aged woman is worried about some chest discomfort. Henry makes a U-turn, and 15 minutes later they pull into a sleepy enclave of single-family homes. A young child waits at the door. After seeing the woman, Nillesen decides to call an ambulance. Henry pulls their SUV across the street and puts on flashing yellow lights while they wait for paramedics to arrive.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/17/21046874/netherlands-universal-health-insurance-private