Cabinet's big cut to healthcare deductible will significantly increase premiums

The government’s plan to cut the healthcare deductible in half will result in health insurance premiums increasing by 199 euros per person per year in 2027. This is evident from calculations of Health Minister Fleur Agema’s bill to achieve the lower deductible, sources in The Hague told the Telegraaf.

In the coalition agreement, the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB agreed to cut the healthcare deductible from 385 euros to 165 euros. Agema is currently working on the bill and will present it to the Cabinet soon, the newspaper’s sources said. With the bill in the works, the financial consequences of the cut are becoming clear for the first time.

The government expects an increase of 199 euros per year per person purely due to the deductible cut. That amounts to 16 euros more per month. This is without the annual increase in health insurance premiums and the increase in healthcare costs that the lower deductible is expected to result in. The premium increase will be offset by tax reductions, but that only benefits people who use their whole deductible in a year and qualify for healthcare benefits.

Healthy Dutch who earn too much to receive the healthcare allowance will be hit by the entire premium increase. Healthy Dutch people who do receive the healthcare allowance will pay around 135 euros more in 2027. According to the Telegraaf, this group consists of about 6 million people, about 40 percent of health insurance policy holders in the Netherlands.

The other 60 percent of the population who use up their entire deductible every year will benefit from the cut, according to the Ministry’s calculations. Dutch people who use up their deductible and receive the healthcare allowance will pay 115 euros less in 2027. Those who don’t receive a healthcare allowance will pay 51 euros less.