| The programme "structure and finance of health care" has a strong economic perspective as well as a judicial perspective. Research focuses on some fundamental aspect of the market-oriented health care reforms that are taking place in the Netherlands as well as in many other countries. The risk-adjuster "Pharmacy Cost Group", developed by the health economics group, is considered to be in the forefront of the international risk adjustment research. The Dutch government has implemented this new risk-adjuster in the Dutch health insurance system in 2002. Research activities are currently dealing with the following topics: structure of health care systems, uncertainty and equilibrium on the market for health insurers, regulated competition in health care, competition policy, risk adjusted premium subsidies for health insurance, determinants of consumer choice of health plan, bonusses for GPs, equity in the finance and delivery of health care and the consequences of the European Union for structure and finance for the Dutch Health care system. The research programme on "equity in health and health care" focuses on the national and international assessment of health equity and inequality. The scope of the research activities has broadened out over the period under consideration from the developed world (OECD countries) to the less developed world. In collaboration with the World Bank the methods for measuring inequality and inequity have been adapted to low-income countries and equity objectives, and have been applied to data from a number of developing nations. The measurement methods of the ECuity Project, which is co-ordinated by the group, have now become adopted as a worldwide standard for assessing the equity performance of health systems and the consequences of reforms, as witnessed by their adoption or explicit reference in all major efforts at system (equity) performance evaluation such as the Rockefeller Foundation's Global Health Equity Initiative, the WHO's World Health Report, the World Bank's World Development Report and the OECD's Framework for Health System Performance. |
