Health insurance costs to rise €470 annually by 2027: Report

Rising healthcare costs will cause a massive increase in health insurance premiums in the coming year. The Central Planning Office (CPB) expects the annual premium to be around 470 euros higher by 2027, De Telegraaf reports.

Premiums for the basic health insurance packages have already increased by over 10 euros to around 138 euros per month this year. The CPB expects even higher increases in the coming years. By 2027, basic health insurance will cost about 175 euros per month, the planning office predicts.

Rising healthcare costs are the main culprit behind the premium increases. The aging population means that people need more care. And rising wages mean care institutions have higher expenses, making health insurance more expensive.

The rising premiums "work against" the already "limited increase in purchasing power" of the coming years, the CPB warned. Almost 1 million people will live below the poverty line next year.

Minister Ernst Kuipers of Public Health told NOS that he was taking sharp premium increases into account. He does not want to get ahead of things, but he, too, expects that healthcare costs will rise sharply due to the reasons the CPB mentioned and the arrival of new, expensive medicines. "If that happens, we'll have to see what we can do about it." He worries that people will start avoiding healthcare due to the costs. "We must prevent that at all costs."