On 26 October 2009, TILEC, TRANZO and the Dutch Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sport organized a major conference at Tilburg University on
"effective managed competition". Both the US and the Netherlands have health care systems that combine managed competition with managed care. Hence, one aim of the conference was to achieve some mutual learning. Leading economists from Harvard University (Chernew, Cutler, and Rosenthal) discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the US system and the challenges of achieving universal coverage, while reducing cost and increasing quality. Martin Gaynor (Carnegie Mellon University) detailed the strong aspects of the Dutch system. A policy discussion featuring Dutch minister Ab Klink and Donald Moulds, acting head of the in-house think-tank of the US Department of Health, closed the day. Several
lessons emerged, such as the importance of a good
ex ante risk equalization scheme, the need to move from fee-for-service to pay-for-performance, and the necessity of some form of competition. The conference attracted high attendance and interest from the media. It was organized by TILEC member Marcel Canoy, with strong support of the TILEC office, and the secretariats of the Department of Economics and Netspar.
