Abstract
The increasing health care expenditure has been a problem in the Netherlands as it has been in other developed countries. They have tried to reform their health care system under the slogan of“Regulated Competition”to solve this problem. Its main purpose is to make resource allocation of health care services more efficient by introducing competition in their health care system.
In the Netherlands, they prepare both health insurance for short-term care and compulsory health insurance for long-term care. Since“Plan-Dekker”and“Plan Simmons”, the Dutch health care reform has attempted to make health care market competitive by rendering insurance corporations agents of consumers. Since 1989, they introduce policies which have aim both to make insurance corporations select health care providers and to allow consumers to be free to bind contracts with any insurance corporation. Though, after Mrs. Borst's statement in 1995, they suspend the reform for the time being, we can learn from the Netherlands many things such as an idea and a way to reform health care system because both Japan and the Netherlands adopt social insurance.
