If you come to live or work in the Netherlands, you must register with a health insurer as soon as possible. In any case, do this within 4 months. This also applies if you still have foreign health insurance.

Start compulsory insurance

You are compulsorily insured from the day you come to live in the Netherlands and register with a Dutch municipality. Or start working for a Dutch employer. From that day on, you will also be reimbursed for care from the basic package. Even if you have not yet taken out health insurance. You have 4 months time to take out health insurance.

You therefore also owe monthly installments over that period. You pay this afterwards, as soon as you take out health insurance within the period of 4 months.

Please note: have you already registered with a municipality, but not yet with a health insurer? Then you will receive a letter from the CAK. The CAK ensures that everyone in the Netherlands has health insurance. Do not wait too long to take out health insurance, otherwise you risk a fine.

Zorgtoeslag (government refunds)

The 'zorgtoeslag' is a contribution to the costs of health insurance if you have little income. Are you entitled to healthcare allowance? Then you will receive the supplement from the moment you are obliged to have health insurance. You can calculate your health care allowance yourself on benefits.nl. You can apply for health care allowance if you earn less than 32,000 euros per year. The less you earn, the more allowance you will receive. You can apply for the allowance throughout the year, even up to a few months into the new year.

Which health insurers are there?

There are many health insurers in the Netherlands. You have to choose your own health insurance company.

The Netherlands currently has eleven health insurers that are directors for various labels. Among these 11 health insurers are about 34 labels (names). In total, you can choose from 45 insurance policies.

The four largest health insurers are: Zilveren Kruis Achmea, VGZ, CZ and Menzis. Of everyone who is obliged to choose health insurance, 85.0 percent (in 2022) is insured with one of these four.

How do you choose the right health insurer?

If there are about 45 different insurances to choose from, the question is how to choose the right insurance for yourself. The following five points are important.

• Healthcare costs: the amount you pay each month.
• Coverage: basic and supplementary insurance.
• Policy: kind or refund.
• Choice of care: the choice of hospitals and other care providers.
• Discount: for example through a collective or by increasing your own risk/excess.

What is insured?

A health insurance consists of a basic insurance that you can expand with supplementary insurance. The basic insurance covers your doctor's costs and hospital costs. The basic insurance has a standard own risk/excess of EUR 385 per year. You can choose to increase the own risk/excess to a maximum of EUR 885 per year. For all hospital costs that you have in a year, you therefore pay the first part yourself. That is what is meant by the excess. The advantage of increasing the own risk/excess is that the monthly payment is lower.

In addition to the basic insurance, you can take out additional insurance with two packages. These are things that are not included in the basic package. The additional package and the dentist package. The supplementary insurance is not mandatory. You decide whether you want the additional insurance or not. There is no own risk/excess for supplementary insurance.

Additional package:

Insured in particular glasses, contact lenses, physiotherapy, alternative medicine

Dentist package:

Insured in particular dentist, orthodontics

Cost:

The costs of basic insurance with a deductible of EUR 385 are approximately EUR 130 per month.

The costs of basic insurance with a deductible of EUR 885 are approximately EUR 95 per month.

The cost of an extra package is approximately EUR 25 per month. There are many differences in options and prices.

The costs of a dental package are approximately EUR 20 per month. There are many differences in options and prices.

Difference 'restitutie' and 'natura' insurance

When you take out basic insurance, you often have the choice of two insurances: a insurance in restitutie or a natura insurance. The biggest difference between those two is the free choice of care you have. With a restitutie insurance, you decide for yourself which healthcare provider you go to, without this affecting the reimbursement from the insurer. With a natura insurance, your health insurer only fully reimburses care provided by contracted care providers. That's why a natura insurance is slightly cheaper.

Is it possible to change insurance?

You can exchange health insurance once a year. This automatically applies to January of the following year. That is why you see that most people go to see if they are going to change their insurance in December. They often do this to get cheaper insurance. People also estimate what they expect in healthcare costs in the coming year. For example, if you know that you will have knee surgery next year, it is best to keep your own risk/excess as low as possible. Then you end up cheaper at the end of the year. The difference between the payment that you pay monthly and the own risk/excess is then favorable for you.

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