Pull the reigns on health insurers, says Labour leader

PvdA leader Diederik Samsom is calling on health minister Martin van Rijn to intervene in the country's existing home healthcare policy, reports NRC. "Bring the insurers to book,” Samson said in an interview with the newspaper on Thursday.“The fundamental threat to the health sector is the management and bureaucracy of health care institutions, notably insurance companies," said Samson. "Their impulse is to exercise total control and risk management over the new system — hence, the deadline that all patients must be reassessed by May 1." Referring to the deadline, he added: "That needs to be taken off the table." Samsom would like to see a restriction on the number of home healthcare service providers. He is also urging the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports to hasten implementation of a new kind of payment for long-term care. In response, Minister Van Rijn is quoted as saying: “Insurers play an important role. I understand that they seek a lot of information and do a lot of checks, but that should not be at the expense of nurses' valuable time."