CU wants €18/hr minimum wage, dental & birth control in basic health insurance package

The ChristenUnie wants to increase the minimum wage to 18 euros an hour to put an end to the “working poor” phenomenon, the party said in its election manifesto. The party also wants to tie health insurance premiums to income so that low-income households pay less and add dental care and all forms of contraception to the basic health insurance package, AD reports.

The minimum wage in the Netherlands is currently around 12 euros per hour. The six euro bump would also increase social assistance benefits and the state pension, which are tied to minimum wage. “We don’t want anyone to fall through the ice,” ChristenUnie leader Mirjam Bikker said when presenting the election program in Nunspeet on Thursday morning. “Whether it concerns a family with children, a starter, or an older person with a state pension.”

The ChristenUnie wants to prevent situations like the benefits scandal, in which thousands of parents were left in financial ruin after the Tax Authority falsely accused them of fraud and ordered them to repay their childcare allowance, by scrapping allowances altogether. Instead, there will be a tax credit - a type of income tax that you don’t pay but receive. The first adult in a household gets 400 euros per month, the second 200 euros, and 333.33 euros per child. That amount replaces the child benefit and child-related budget.

The smallest party in the outgoing coalition wants to make health insurance much cheaper for low-income households, reducing their premiums from 150 to 50 euros per month. ChristenUnie wants to cover the always increasing healthcare costs by making the basic health insurance premium income-related so that people with a high salary bear more of this burden.

The party wants to return basic dental care - twice-a-year checkups and cavity fillings - to the basic health insurance package. Health insurance should also cover all forms of contraception to reduce the number of abortions. And the party wants paid informal care leave, where employees can take up to two months off work to help loved ones “at crucial moments in life.” The state will pay 70 percent of their wages, and employers must be “encouraged” to cover the rest.