Health insurance costs could fall €25 a month with higher excess

Health insurance premiums could fall by around €25 a month next year if the government’s plans to raise the excess charge for medical treatment go ahead.

The economic planning agency CPB calculated that the cost of cover would fall because patients are liable for more of the costs of treatments covered by the compulsory basic package.

The new government has proposed to raise the level of the deductible element, or eigen risico (own risk), which has been frozen for the last 10 years, by €60 next year.

It also wants to start tying future increases to inflation, which would raise the annual cost next year from €385 to €460. The government would also cap the cost per treatment at €150 to offset the impact on chronically sick patients.

The CPB calculates the nominal cost of the basic package would be €159 a month next year if the cabinet’s plans go through, the Telegraaf reported.

The price is expected to increase in future years, but at a lower rate than if the rate remained frozen. The CPB says the nominal cost will be €180 a month in 2030, rather than €210 under the previous government’s plan to halve the own-risk rate.

However, the coalition parties will need to find opposition parties wiling to support the reforms because the minority government does not have enough votes to pass laws on its own.

In the lower house, the right-wing parties JA21 and the Markuszower group that split from the PVV this year, as well as the SGP, are willing to support the reform. Two of the parties would be able to supply the 10 votes the cabinet needs, but Gidi Markuszower’s group is likely to demand concessions in return.

In the Senate the coalition faces an uphill task to secure a majority because the left-wing alliance GroenLinks-PvdA, which is the largest party, and the second largest, the farmers’ party BBB, both want to cut the own-risk element.