Thread by @voxdotcom

1/ In the Netherlands, a mandatory cooperative of doctors provides after-hours care for patients.

It's a microcosm of their health care: a complex machine with many moving parts, providers working in concert to deliver medical care to their patients.

bit.ly/2NCODh7

2/ Private insurance is the foundation of the Netherlands’ health care system, with strict government regulation to ensure affordability and access mixed in.

And it’s working well.

3/ The Netherlands has built one of the highest-quality health care systems in the world, ranking first in the world on one measure: a quality and access index that measures how well a country’s health care system does in avoiding preventable deaths. thelancet.com/action/showFul…

4/ Before the country switched to private health insurance for everybody, the Netherlands faced a fractured health system much like America's.

The fix? An overhaul that requires citizens to purchase private health insurance individually, through a strongly regulated market.

5/ The Dutch system’s rules foreshadowed the rules in the Affordable Care Act on preexisting conditions:
—guaranteed issue
—community rating
—an individual mandate

6/ The system, of course, isn’t perfect. Problems exist like doctors feeling pressure and high costs. And any changes to the country’s health care system have often been contentious.

7/ Ultimately, the Netherlands created a universal health care system that includes both competition and collaboration — a spirit that’s clearly seen in their after-hours care program.

Read the full story from @dylanlscott: bit.ly/2NCODh7

8/8 Everybody Covered is a Vox series looking abroad for lessons on how to achieve universal and affordable health care, made possible by a grant from The Commonwealth Fund. All content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists. Read more: vox.com/covered