Comazuipers and Compulsory Insurance

The Netherlands is one of those places that has compulsory insurance laws.  (Like the US is about to have.)  Everyone is required to pay for health insurance and that insurance has to meet state mandated requirements for coverage.  Anyone staying in the Netherlands for more than 3 months (the length of a tourist visa) is required to purchase health insurance and register their compliance with the state (including me).  The problem with this, of course, is that there is no encouragement to behave in a way which limits one's liability.  And, given the stereotype of Dutch culture, perhaps there is no surprise in the fact that the Dutch Ministry of Health is trying to figure a way around these artificial constraints on the market.

Earlier this week, one of the Ministers said that anyone picked up drunk, and taken to the hospital because of the advanced state of their inebriation, should be charged for their care.  (The Dutch word is "comazuipers".  Coma is obvious and "zuipers" apparently means "one given to habitual drunkeness".)  Others in the Ministry argue that this isn't fair--that this is a slippery slope and that it will lead to habitual smokers having to pay if they come down with a lung disease and other people being forced to pay if they come down with diseases or ailments as a result of their voluntary behaviors.  They found that quite offensive.  I don't really have a problem with that myself.  It does seem awfully hard on those poor folks, though, that they are forced to pay a rather steep governmental health insurance premium and then are forced to pay for their hospitalization as well.

In any case, it seems like an interesting exercise in the effect of the market and in the reliance placed on it even by officials who have deemed it ineffective.

The nu.nl website had this cartoon about the issue which seems to reflect a Dutch appreciation for policies which make perpetrators bear the cost of their own actions and choices.  The caption says "Health Minister doesn't want drunks in comas to pay for themselves."  The doctor says "Leeching off our tax dollars again, hey moron?!"  (Except he uses an entirely inappropriate word.  I had never seen it before and Google Translate wouldn't translate it.  Then, when I typed it into Google, it didn't automatically look for it--it made me click to search.  Apparently, when you look up vulgar things they make you do it very intentionally.  Even if you do it by accident.  My Google search history is starting to look really, really weird, right about now, after this and the lucifer thing)  and then the other guy says "You have to keep talking to the coma patients.  There's always a chance they'll hear you."