basisverzekering-bleef-lange-tijd-gelijk-vermogens-van-zorgverzekeraarsstegen, accessed on 15-07-2019. Between 2011 and 2014, the average yearly premium for the basic insurance even rose to € 1.300, and in 2008, deductibles were introduced to raise cost-awareness on the side of patients (as of 2016, at a minimum of €385, to be raised to a maximum of €885 at the insured's request).into his general body of works focusing on the exertion of power in human relations (often focusing on the Early Modern Period, that is until the late 18 th century). 24 However, for the purposes of this dissertation, I will limit the scope of this term, using a conceptualization he employed to discuss post-war, burgeoning 'neoliberal' states in the Western world. In typical Foucauldian language -not generally known for its clarity -Foucault in 1978 typified the meaning of the 'state' and governmental power in this context as follows:The state is not a universal nor in itself an autonomous source of power. The state is nothing else but the effect, the profile, the mobile shape of a perpetual statification (étatisation) or statifications, in the sense of incessant transactions which modify, or move, or drastically change, or insidiously shift sources of finance, modes of investment, decision-making centers, forms and types of control, relationships between local powers, the central authority, and so on […] The state is nothing else but the mobile effect of a regime of multiple governmentalities. 25 These claims, though somewhat obscure, provide a way for breaking open the idea that relationships between 'the' state and society should be seen as one-way, binary, or top-down affairs. To further clarify Foucault, we may supplement 'governmentality' with the more recent notion of 'governance'. In recent decades, 'governance' has gained currency in social and political science circles as a way to study policy-making and mechanisms of (political) action outside of the scope of government, traditionally defined. For instance, the 2012 Oxford Handbook of Governance in this regard speaks of governance as a 'science of shiftology': "Governance signifies a change in the meaning of government, referring to new processes of governing; or changed conditions of ordered rule; or new methods by which society is governed." 26 This makes 'governance' as a concept a prime instrument for historical analysis of change over time, and as we shall see, it is precisely such shifting processes, conditions and methods for governing and achieving public goals which clearly come to the surface at various points in the history of Dutch health care. At the same time, such shifting always leads to a complex new interplay of private and public interests and players, without any one specific actor or 'decisionmaking center' gaining the upper hand. This does, however, make 'governance' a somewhat
