The communist charm of Dutch healthcare

Starting this year, I'll be spending twice as much on healthcare insurance thanks to a botched attempt by the so-called free-market party VVD to privatize the sector.
If only. If anything, healthcare in the Netherlands is getting more of that good ol' East European charm by the day.
Imagine my surprise when I called my GP today for an appointment, only to hear that the next available slot was on Friday. Apparently, she doesn't work on Thursdays, and Wednesday was already booked full.
It's very much free-market to choose your own hours, and if my GP wants to work four days a week (or three, or two, or one) then that's fine by me. As long as there's an industry in place that makes it possible for me to go to an alternative supplier of medical services.
The sad truth is that such an industry is, in fact, not in place. Healthcare institutions and the government have worked strenuously for years now to create an artificial scarcity on the market. The number of medical schools is limited, and so is the number of places for students. Rather than increasing the number of teachers, we hold lotteries (for selecting on proficiency would be discriminatory) to keep the number of future doctors down to an insufficient number.
Add to that the fact that it isn't really easy to go to an alternative GP in case your own one decides having two days a week off isn't enough. There is an emergency service, but it isn't much use unless you happen to be bleeding to death. And though more and more Dutch GP's expect their patients to adapt to their schedules by being unavailable for 3/7th of the week, there is very little appreciation in the medical community for the fact that more and more of those patients themselves lead ever busier lives, and may not be able to accept an appointment at an inconvenient time which lies some three days in the future to begin with.
There have been a few attempts to commercialize GP services. In The Hague, a total of fifteen GP's have grouped together to offer consultations during extended hours. Alas, they don't accept customers outside that area. And the response from the medical community has been by and large sceptical, if not downright hostile. Which means it may take years before such services become available in the capital, where I live.
If an increasing number of Dutch decide to slash their wrists, you may therefore be mistaken in assuming that they seek to end their lives. It may simply be the quickest way to get a GP to prescribe them some corticosteroids to deal with a rash.

13:29

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