Private clinics for employees as a Dutch solution for waiting lists: economic and legal arguments

Private clinics for employees have emerged on a small scale during the last few years in Dutch health care. They represent new possibilities for ill employees who have to wait for medical treatments on waiting lists. Earlier proposals to allow employers in close co-operation with health insurers to start initiatives for special clinics for employees have been confronted with all kind of arguments which were considered to form serious obstacles, from theoretical, legal and economic perspectives. The European Court of Justice plays a decisive role in deciding whether free establishment and access is approved according to the rules of the EC Treaty. Private clinics can be legally allowed in the interests of the common good. However, priority treatment of a person can only be justified if the intended purpose is justified and if the priority treatment is suited as a means to (partly) realise this purpose. Furthermore, possible negative consequences may not be unreasonable in the light of-the intended consequences. In this article it will be argued that both from an economic and from a legal perspective, based on national and European law, the introduction of special clinics for employees could be allowed. The main argument is that they could be introduced on a just and equitable basis. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.