ABSTRACT
This chapter examines in what way the not-for-profit health insurance ideology, personified in sickness funds and their (social) health insurance scheme, has influenced for-profit health insurers in the Netherlands during the twentieth century. The introduction of social health insurance in the Netherlands had major repercussions for the private health insurance industry. The spirit of social justice and the drive towards universal coverage stimulated the penetration of private health insurance by sickness funds. The Sickness Fund Council, consisting of representatives of sickness funds, the Nederlandsche Maatschappij ter bevordering der Geneeskunst (NMG), trade unions, employers and the Ministry of Social Affairs, would supervise compulsory and voluntary social health insurance and manage the resources of General Fund. The chapter concludes that both the government and sickness funds, though not always intentionally and not always in a coordinated manner, have tried to either neutralize or incorporate for-profit insurers in the broader system of health care financing.
