Health insurance costs to rise in 2015

Next year, the health insurance premium for a basic package will go up with €10 a month. According to sources from the Algemeen Dagblad around the budget talks, the mandatory own risk insurance will also rise per year.  The recommended price of health insurance for insurers has been raised by €114 per year, compared to last year, to €1215 per adult, as worked out by ruling parties and friendly opposition parties, though insurers eventually decide their own tariff. The amount stated is less than previously predicted in January, when the price hike was estimated at €200 a year. The Cabinet took measures to limit this. These sums have not been confirmed, as the official date for the release of budgetary details is on Prinsjestag, on the 16th of September this year. A spokesperson for Minister Edith Schippers of Public Health will not confirm anything before that date. According to the AD, there are two reasons for this price hike. The transfer of tasks from national government to municipality next year means that the costs of community healthcare will be paid out of the health care insurance kitty. Here, an amount of billions of euros counts for long-term care. This extra cost will be caught up by raising everyone's premiums, the AD writes. Employers have also paid too much for health care insurance in the past, which will now be compensated for. The employee will therefore have to pay more to make up the cost. It has been reported that taxes are expected to go down next year, and that individual purchasing power will go up. PvdA-leader Diederik Samsom sees the light at the end of the tunnel. "We shouldn't consider ourselves rich, but we hope that people will also feel it in their purses."