The set of deregulation measures had some direct
consequences. Firstly, private insurance companies
suddenly came up as key players in the OHS market
because the large majority of companies did reinsure
the risk of continuation of payment of wages over a year
in the event of sickness. Private insurance companies
were interested in OHS services for claim evaluation,
the prevention of disability and all kinds of mea-
sures that improve loss-control. Another preponderate
consequence was the entrance of new competitive
OHS suppliers in the market. Besides some new com-
mercial OHSs, the new suppliers mainly originated
from the former Social Sickness Insurance Institutions
which used to administer the Sickness Law (Bedrijfsv-
erenigingen) for the different branches, and that were