Health Care Reforms in an Ageing European Society, with a Focus on the Netherlands

This report discusses health care and long-term care in Europe, focusing particularly on the Dutch approach to these issues. The Dutch situation offers an example of a successful reform of curative health care. However, until recently there was a standstill on long-term care policy.

In view of the fact that the European population is ageing, reforms to policy concerning long-term care are needed and must be pursued.

In this report, which is based on the EU Sustainability Report of 2009, theauthor present the expected increase in health care expenditure due to ageing (European Commission, 2009). Furthermore, they discuss the Dutch curative health care system and compare it with those of other Western countries. In 2006 a major policy reform took place in the Netherlands. The motives for this reform and the developments that have occurred since are outlined, and the agenda for the future of health care policy is sketched.

In addition, the Dutch system for long-term care is described and is compared with those of other European countries. In this section tey autors also discuss general lessons learned from previous reforms and draw some conclusions that lead to suggestions for future research