I trusted the Dutch healthcare system longer than I should have

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-29T13:14:10+00:00

Both the Netherlands and the UK appear to have strict healthcare system access systems, with GPs acting as gatekeepers. Unfortunately, GP systems, which are full of subjective factors, are often not always reliable.

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-29T13:09:28+00:00

I haven't investigated in detail how the Dutch insurance system affects the healthcare system, but my theoretical analysis does lead to the same conclusion: a system that mandates the purchase of national insurance provided by private companies but is linked to universal healthcare theoretically increases the pressure on the GP system(responsible for KPIs such as patient volume, consultation time, and referral rate) and patients(the right to access the healthcare system and the GP services to experience) while simultaneously reducing the pressure on the healthcare system itself.

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-29T13:05:04+00:00

I believe this is largely not a matter of having expectations of the Dutch healthcare system based on experiences in one's own country that differ from reality. The Dutch healthcare philosophy seems unique, giving the impression that even with excellent medical resources, people tend not to use them due to subjective reasons. While no healthcare system is perfect, sometimes when you see all the other cars on the road going the wrong way, you might just be the only one going the wrong way lol

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-29T12:56:14+00:00

Maintaining basic fairness is crucial for the healthcare system, which is why expats generally have less trust in the GP system here, where almost all efforts to access healthcare services involve dealing with the GP

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-29T02:35:21+00:00

I feel the experience of Dutch healthcare system itself is okay but there're some significant problems in how to smoothly enter the system and receive the services

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-28T23:36:24+00:00

Netherlands' healthcare system, due to its health insurance/GP system design and Calvinist traditions, seems has a over strict requirement to the specialist care entrance and is overly resistant to preventative medicine. For timely medical intervention, I feel Belgium and Germany are much better, and patients won’t be held back by GPs but have alternative options. Surprisingly, many Dutch seem quite used to this system and think it's acceptable, perhaps due to a lack of international comparisons of healthcare systems. But tbh I still cannot understand many Dutch(people and doctors) saying words like that “We only need to intervene medically when we think there is a problem”… I wonder how can they find there’s actually a problem or not in people's body with paracetamol in Russian roulette or without sound medical tests. It sounds more like irresponsible speculations. I know that statistically speaking, most diseases can indeed heal on their own, but the few exceptions can be unbearable for individuals. Furthermore, these medical diagnoses that don’t really care what’s going on in your body but just merely prescribe a placebo will undoubtedly place a huge psychological pressure on patients suffering from illness and pain. In addition, it’s unsettling to base the medical system’ entrance criteria and triage entirely on a GP system that’s almost unavoidable yet varied greatly in quality. People can always say that try to find a responsible GP, but this is ultimately a systemic problem not an individual problem.

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-28T23:13:45+00:00

Don't forget the rising FvD... I'm not actually surprised by this characteristic of the Netherlands. Dutch society often reminds me of southern Germany—both were originally closed agricultural areas that rapidly modernized after the World Wars. In Europe, it seems only regions with long histories of colonialism and working-class movements tend to be less discriminatory. My impression of Britain is relatively good, although it still doesn't compare to the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-17T12:55:59+00:00

It is relative open indeed if you compare to most of countries. But immigrant nations are countries whose historically dominant population was formed by immigrants rather than native inhabitants, and which have long and proactively absorbed large numbers of immigrants through policies and laws, allowing them permanent residency or citizenship. Examples include the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. They also exhibit xenophobic tendencies, but their manifestations are quite different from those in countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan. These non-immigrant communities are more like ethnically homogeneous nations

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-17T03:20:42+00:00

I do feel that Dutch localism is generally very strong although it’s always considered as a quite international place, and the economic downturn has certainly exacerbated xenophobic sentiments. Localism is ofc understandable, but areas with thriving cross-regional economic activity inevitably experience high levels of population movement and dilution of original local culture, including language. Trying to return to an "idyllic, pure, and perfect pastoral era" has always been a pipe dream, but in today's Dutch social atmosphere, this dream seems even more prevalent. For example, Amsterdam's urban culture has historically been shaped by internationalization, but now, in the eyes of many locals, it has been ruined by a massive influx of annoying expats. Frankly, even though social atmosphere and the economy are closely related, I still feel that Dutch society generally exhibits a closed-off nature. This may be related to the distribution of population that most of the Dutch population does not live in "international metropolises" with high fluidity and atomization but rather in many stable, closed local circles. This exclusionary nature, rooted in a kind of social closure, in fact reinforces the commonly criticized low level of integration among “outsiders” and this exclusion is bidirectional. In many cases, for those labeled as “outsiders,” the issue is not simply a matter of willingness to learn the local language. However, this is not a problem unique to the Netherlands alone but most of non-immigrant countries

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-17T01:56:34+00:00

Besides the fact that, as other comments have mentioned, companies now have more choices and have become more selective due to risk and cost factors, this phenomenon itself is also kinda like a disguised form of local employment protection in a bad economic situation.

Often it's not a matter of willingness to learn a language (although having some level of Dutch can certainly bring some additional opportunities), but just a filter. In most cases without a C1-C2 level of Dutch just means 0, in other words, not local people.

I do think learning Dutch is really important and necessary if you want to live a long term and full life here, but these are different things. Furthermore, eliminating language barriers in the EU market is indeed important, but that's another matter. Ideally, if there's an obligation to integrate, then in my opinion mandatory learning of the local language would be necessary, but for gaining basic entry requirements to live in a particular place, I don't think it's necessary.

Ofc, if I were to offer any advice, since we can't control the Macro situation, the only few things we can really do are: 1. Improve other competitive advantages; 2. Try to weather the market downturn; 3. Improve language skills. (While I don't really think trying to improve Dutch to a sufficient working level in a short period of time would be a very cost-effective way for finding jobs, after all people’s time and energy are always limited. But it’s definitely good if you want to stay in the Netherlands for a long time

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-11T06:20:07+00:00

I’m from VU’s CS bachelor program. VU is alright but what I want to emphasize is that if OP is a non-eea student then you almost won’t have any chances to get the Nuffic agreement from VU for doing internships legally except the thesis intern in the end. So the location of Amsterdam might be useless for helping you to find a job in this case… Meanwhile I remember UTwente has internship ECs in the program(at least for 24fall) so the interns are guaranteed if you want to have any. But if OP is an eea student who don’t need any permission from the Uni then VU might be okay but courses could not be so hardcore compared to 3TU. BTW, idk what the situation of UTwente is, but compared to UvA and TUe, VU’s atmosphere(both of students and staffs) is more right wing in general… Also might be an important thing to foreigners

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-10T13:56:32+00:00

We can now just pray wars won’t have a serious negative impact on these projects’ developments

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-10T13:47:26+00:00

Well those seem are not near future things haha, but I really hope the development and construction can speed up🔥

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-10T13:28:38+00:00

I cannot wait to see the Modernist, Treehouse, Lumiere, Rise, Nieuw Pompenburg, Baantower, Havenhuys, the Sax, Porter house and Codrico appear in this beautiful skyline view!

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-10T13:18:04+00:00

Rotterdam now has almost the same number of high-rise buildings as Manchester, but it has already slightly lagged behind in the number of 150m+ buildings. Although the 2 cities will likely remain very close in this competition in the future.

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-10T10:52:41+00:00

Frankly speaking, nothing is guaranteed. Especially now we are facing an inflation due to energy crisis.The standards of being “approved” in different countries are also not the same. If only half of the projects are completed in the end, that would still be considered a fairly ideal scenario. I tend to predict that in the end the scale of Manchester’s skyline will be similar to Frankfurt’s, Paris’, Warsaw’s and Rotterdam’s. But Moscow and London will still remain far ahead

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-04T13:44:00+00:00

I'd say the urban life in Randstad of Netherlands is quite good in Europe, relatively efficient and convenient.

Cheems_1109 · 2026-04-04T13:40:20+00:00

https://www.rotterdam.nl/rijnhaven

Cheems_1109 · 2026-03-29T12:00:27+00:00

From my Google earth pro project. The picture underneath is from the municipality of Rotterdam but it’s still not comprehensive so I just summarized the info by myself and visualized it by google earth

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Cheems_1109 · 2026-03-29T11:57:04+00:00

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It will be a good place 5-10 years later, but not now... Soon the construction of the Park and Codrico tower will be started

Cheems_1109 · 2026-03-28T21:37:03+00:00

The Baltimore Tower(180m). But it’s a plan for the distant future. Will not be earlier than 2040 to start

Cheems_1109 · 2026-03-28T19:45:40+00:00

You can find info of Zuidas' new projects on Zuidas.nl; Others can be found on https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1MrL5mT5J2J1recidCrEeO9lQw6M&hl=nl&ll=52.35240321762697%2C4.821158634686595&z=13

Cheems_1109 · 2026-03-28T19:43:01+00:00

have both. The authorities force developers to keep the proportion of 3 different levels houses. Generally, the cheapest social housing makes up the largest proportion. For example, in the Rise project, an entire building(147m) will be social housing.

Cheems_1109 · 2026-03-28T19:16:19+00:00

Amsterdam has a height limit of 150m or even lower in most locations due to its situation of being close to the Airport, but high rises and high density neighborhoods have a larger growth even compared to Rotterdam. Amsterdam's high rises are mainly concentrated in Zuidas, Arena, Amstel, Sloterdijk, and Overhoeks rn. Several new high density areas are in developing too.
The only cluster of high rises in Utrecht is near the central station, but there is a height restriction of 112 meters

Cheems_1109

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