Medicines are cures for many illnesses and can improve people’s health dramatically. They also reduce the need for hospitalisation and surgery and enable many chronically ill people to lead normal lives.

 

The Dutch spend relatively little money on medicines. Almost two thirds of the resources spent on medicines goes to cholesterol-reducing drugs, antacids, anti-depressants, painkillers and treatments for astma and chronic pulmonary ailments.

 

The expenses of medicines (10 percent of the total Dutch care budget) is increasing by 7 percent per year. Due to newly developed expensive drugs and ageing population, expenditure on medicines is growing faster than any other item in the health care budget.

 

Keeping control over these costs by encouraging a sensible, economical use of medicines was one of the rationales of the introduction of the new health insurance system. Insurance companies are in closer contact with patients, doctors and pharmacists and therefore better able to control the costs and ensure efficient use of medicines.