NETHERLANDS: Health insurance cost should reflect unhealthy lifestyles: report

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AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands / DutchNews / September 15, 2010

People who smoke and people with an unhealthy lifestyle should pay more for healthcare, the national health council RVZ is poised to recommend to the government, according to the Nederlands Dagblad.

The paper says no where in the industrialised world do as many people smoke as in the Netherlands and that one in five smokers would have to stop to get the Netherlands back to the OECD average in terms of health.

The RVZ is also recommending that cheap medicines which are widely use should no longer be free, the paper says. And the current system of fixed prices for different treatments should also be dropped and hospitals allowed to set their own fees, in negotiation with health insurers.

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