The Balance between Competition Law and Regulation in Dutch Healthcare Markets
13 Pages Posted: 25 Nov 2014 Last revised: 4 Dec 2014
Date Written: November 1, 2014
Abstract
The provision of healthcare in the Netherlands is privatized, as is insurance of curative care. Hence competition law might be expected to play a significant role. However, as is demonstrated in this paper that is not the case. There are four main forms of public intervention in Dutch healthcare markets: (i) general competition law and (ii) sector-specific competition law, as well as (iii) sectoral regulation and (iv) public/private agreements. It turns out that these two forms of regulation are so far much more decisive than the two abovementioned forms of competition law. It is generally agreed that for competition to work in a liberalisation context a degree of regulation (or re-regulation) is needed. However in order for competition to work as a disciplining force on market parties and ultimately to help control healthcare costs, the present degree of regulatory intervention will have to be scaled back.
Keywords: healthcare, competition, regulation, liberalisation
JEL Classification: I01, K21, K23
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation