Next Dutch govt. to increase health insurance premiums, deductibles: report

The health insurance premium and mandatory own risk contribution will increase further in the coming years, newspaper Telegraaf and news wire ANP report based on anonymous sources.

According to the Telegraaf and ANP, the new Dutch government plans to increase the premium for a basic healthcare package by 6 euros per month. The own risk contribution will increase from 385 euros to 400 euros, according to draft documents for Budget Day. This year the own risk contribution did not increase for the first time in years. With this increase, the government hopes to cope with continuously rising healthcare costs. 

To compensate for the higher costs, the government is also increasing the healthcare allowance by 130 euros per year, according to the news agencies Half of this will go towards automatic compensation. The other half is for the government's policy of maintaining the purchasing power of households on the lowest income level. 

A number of Dutch health insurers already hinted that premiums will be higher next year. In early August, DSW chairman Chris Oomen said that healthcare premiums will have to increase due to an unexpected setback of some 400 million euros.

Healthcare costs are expected to increase in the coming years, partly due to the Netherlands' aging population. This year 74.5 billion euros will be spent on healthcare, according to NU.nl

Patiëntenfederatie Nederland, an umbrella organization for patient associations, finds the increase unacceptable. "People already often can't afford healthcare costs. Increasing the own risk and raising health insurance now will lead to avoidance of healthcare", the organizations said, according to the newspaper.  The organization calls on the Tweede Kamer to take this "unfortunate plan" off the table, pointing out that a number of political parties indicated that they want to reduce the own risk contribution.  

In the campaigns running up to the parliamentary elections earlier this year, the CDA and ChristenUnie were two of the parties who campaigned for reducing the own risk contribution. The two Christian parties are currently negotiating forming the new Dutch government with the VVD and D66. In April it was revealed that completely scrapping the own risk contribution would cost 4.8 billion euros per year, and reducing it by 100 euros like the CDA wanted would cost 1.1 billion euros annually.