'New but more expensive products hardly reach patients anymore'

Although health insurers have come to grips with rising healthcare costs, new but more expensive products are in danger of no longer reaching patients.

This is what Luc Knaven, director of FHI Medical Technology, says FD article. The piece describes the development in which manufacturers and suppliers of medical equipment are launching increasingly better and more expensive products on the market, while insurers try to rein in costs. In addition, more and more people are starting to use medical technology in the home environment.

“Just as some medicines are no longer available, we will also see this with aids that people depend on at home. The emphasis on costs has done a lot of good. But the bottom has now been reached,” says Knaven.

He also warns of the danger that quality could be compromised: “I just warn you: we are going after the pharmaceutical industry. Just as some medicines are no longer available, we will also see the same with aids that people depend on at home. They can no longer live at home and have to go back to the hospital.”

FHI Medical Technology has now sent an urgent letter to politicians. The Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) also warned about the problem in the Aids Care Monitor.

Read more in the FD.