the Good News
The land of chocolate, cow bells, and nazi bank accounts has proven what we've all suspected for a while now - a non-detetectable viral load gives a (clinically) negligible chance of transfer. Very simply said; if you take your meds then the chance that you can infect anyone else is technically zero.
The Americans et al are up in arms about this of course. Our status just moved from 'potential murderers' to 'nice people who take pills'.
the Bad News
The Liberal Netherlands moves one step further away from utopia.
The Nederlandse Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten or AWBZ as it is called is a general law (or group of rules) organising insurance payment for so called 'special illnesses'. In Dutch Law these 'special illnesses' are termed as such when there is no cure, if there is treatment to halt or reduce the spread of the illness, experimental treatments etc. Nursing homes, hospices etc also fall under this law.
As hiv+ers we are classified as chronically ill and all of our hiv related costs are paid for by this law.
However, yesterday the comittee for advice to the government on public health advised them to remove the AWBZ and hand it over to the commercial health insurance companies. Saying that "they are better equipped to deal with these cases more efficiently and with higher quality". They also added that the cost of the AWBZ for the government is exhorbitant.
What does this mean?
The most vulnerable people in this country, the terminally ill, the chronically ill, the dying, the diseased without hope, the disabled without future - their well-being will be decided upon by commercial insurance companies.
That is, if they can pay for it .... can you?
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2 comments:
Correction Nic: expenses for hiv+ and chronically ill people are not paid through AWBZ. AWBZ is for some incurable psychiatric diseases and the (physically and mentally) handicapped.
Hiv treatment is payed through the ZVW, the Zorg Verzekerings Wet, were we pay our monthly premium for.
Not said that cancelling AWBZ and hand it over to commercial companies is a good thing. It's probably not.
In addition to my post:
http://www.minvws.nl/en/themes/exceptional-medical-expenses-act/
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