The debate on no-fault compensation in the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands the total number of liability claims per year is about 2500, 100 of which are taken to court. Over the years these figures appear to be rather constant. It has been estimated that introducing a no-fault compensation system would lead to three to six times as many claims and would push up the costs of medical malpractice claims by a factor of three or even seven. When considering the introduction of a no-fault compensation system the main question to be answered is which problem has to be solved. Is it the improvement of the patients' possibility to recover? Is the main goal to put a stop to the progress of increasing costs of liability claims? Is saving doctors from the threat of being sued the main issue? Or is there a problem of the insurance companies that has to be solved? No-fault compensation is not a panacea. In the end improving the liability system may turn out to be a better solution.
Dute
Joseph
J
Department of Health Law, Institute of Health Policy and Management Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
D035881:Compensation and Redress / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D016365:Liability, Legal / Q000191:economics*; D008318:Malpractice / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009426:Netherlands