Healthcare in the Netherlands
A 2008 article in the journal "Health Affairs" suggested that the Dutch health system, which combines mandatory universal coverage with competing private health plans, could serve as a model for reform in the US. However,
an assessment of the 2006 Dutch health insurance reforms published in Duke University's "Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law" in 2008 raised concerns. The analysis found that market-based competition in healthcare may not have the advantages over more publicly based single payer models that were originally envisioned for the reforms:
Mamita Fox
According to a law implemented in 2011, all BES islands citizens were required to be insured under the new compulsory health insurance plans of the Netherlands Health Insurance Office (). Previously because there were insufficient facilities to provide care on the islands, comprehensive health insurance allowed for treatment in places such as Colombia. The new system placed all physician referrals under the discretion of the ZVK, which routinely denied off-island referrals due to cost. It also made access to health care unequal for European Dutch citizens and Dutch citizens living in the Caribbean Netherlands. In 2013 after she was denied a medical referral, Fox staged a sit-in in front of the Caribbean Netherlands Tax Office in Kralendijk to protest the changes in health care provisions implemented by Dutch authorities. For eight days, she and her supporters protested and collected signatures.