National Health Insurance

The National Health Insurance is a work in progress but its completion is still a long way away. As Professor Wynand van de Ven explains in our front page story, this does not mean that the country should do nothing in the meantime. The first order of the day is the establishment of a third party purchaser – a body that will negotiate price and quality of care with care providers at home and abroad.

But there is more: the composition of the care package. What will fall under this insurance and what kind of care will people have to pay for themselves?

If politicians want to act as crowd-pleasers the debate about the care package could become ugly – and very expensive too.

Van de Ven justly advises St. Maarten to start out carefully. It’s better to offer a limited package first and see how it works than to present a package with so many bells and whistles that it become financially unsustainable.

In the Netherlands, dental care and eye glasses for adults do not fall within the basic care package. People who want to cover these elements will have to buy additional private insurance or sock up money for future mishaps with their glasses or their teeth.

There are maybe more important discussions ahead. Should for instance the pill be in this package? Common sense says: of course, but the political reality around this subject could prove to be very stubborn. There will always be voices claiming that offering contraceptives for free stimulates sexual activity among young people at an age when their parents feel they’re not ready for it.

That’s just the point: parents are free to think what they want, but their children do engage in sexual activities at a very young age whether they like it or not. The choice is here between being stubborn and putting up with unwanted pregnancies or being realistic and going in the right direction.