Public funding and private provision
The Netherlands have a long tradition of non-governmental health care. Most of the facilities providing care for the handicapped, and most hospitals have private origins, even though they receive most, if not all, of their funding from public financing sources. Also the majority of family doctors and dentists are in private practice. This tradition of private provision and public funding has positive and negative outcomes. On the one hand, it has brought strong public support for health care and it has resulted in a well-developed system of health services. On the other hand, it is also one of the causes of cost control problems.
Per capita health expenditure
The best way to look at the total costs is to see what is the per capita health expenditure in different countries. If we compare these percentages over different European countries plus the United States, Canada and Japan, we see that Switzerland and the United States spend the most on their health care, about 3500 US$ per capita. The figures are from 1994. After that comes Japan, with 2600 US$. The Netherlands are among the countries with average expenditure per capita. They spend about 1900 US$.
