Health insurance deductible cuts at risk if Cabinet restores higher education budget

Health Minister and PVV Deputy Minister Fleur Agema is “naturally” disappointed that the Cabinet may be unable to reduce the healthcare deductible by more than half. Under pressure from the opposition, the coalition must reduce planned education cuts and, according to the opposition parties, could pay for this with a smaller cut to the deductible.

Agema could not rule out the possibility that the coalition may not be able to lower the health insurance deductible so dramatically, which was a key PVV campaign promise during the election a year ago, Agema said outside the weekly Council of Ministers meeting on Friday.

“I think this development is a great shame,” said Agema. “But my back is also up against the wall. Because ultimately, the Tweede Kamer decides how we spend our money.”

The four governing coalition parties in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, are negotiating with five opposition parties about easing billions of euros in cuts to education and are looking for money to close the gap. “The problem is, of course, that there is a shortage of money everywhere,” Agema said.

During the election campaign, the PVV boasted of its plan to abolish the deductible, currently 385 euros per year. The coalition eventually agreed that it would cut the healthcare deductible to 165 euros in the coming years.

According to AD, that was one of PVV leader Geert Wilders’ conditions for accepting that he could not be Prime Minister. “I hope that will remain because it is very important for people to be referred to hospitals when they have complaints,” Agema said on Friday.

Opposition parties CDA, D66, ChristenUnie, SGP, and JA21 argued for cutting the deductible to 185 euros. That would free up half a billion euros which could, among other things, scrap the fine on students who are not able to graduate within a recommended timeframe.

The education experts of the coalition parties and five opposition parties had a long meeting on Thursday but did not make a firm agreement. They will discuss the education cuts again later.

Deviating from the coalition agreement by, for example, reducing the deductible by a lower amount is “not on the agenda yet,” BBB parliamentarian Claudia van Zanten said after the meeting.

The opposition submitted proposals to scrap 1.3 billion of the 2 billion euros of planned cuts to the education budget. “The coalition did not invite us without reason, of course,” D66 MP Jan Paternotte said after the meeting. But an “enormous bridge across the gap” has not yet been built.

“This involves a lot of money,” he said. There is still a lot of work to be done.