Health Care

In The Netherlands every person needs to have health insurance by law. Even if you are already insured in your own country or work temporarily in The Netherlands you are still required to have health care insurance. 

You are free to choose your own health insurer. Moreover, you can change insurers once at the end of the year. To register you will need a social security number (in Dutch this is called a BSN-nummer or burgerservicenummer).  You can find this number on you residence permit.

The health coverage

The basic health coverage with every insurer covers:

• Medical care, including that provided by GP's, hospitals, medical specialists and obstetricians
• Hospital stays
• Dental health-care for those aged up to 18 years
• Medical Appliances
• Medicines (however, contraception is not included)
• Maternity Care
• Medical transportation (by ambulance or by public transport, taxi or private car)
• Paramedical care (limited physiotherapy/remedial therapy, speech therapy, advice on dieting)
• Rehabilitation
• IVF(In vitro fertilisation)
• Quit smoking support (coverage guidelines may differ) 

With some insurers you are free to choose a GP, dentist or hospital. Other insurers work together with specific medical professionals and institutions. With these insurers you are required to use the expertise of these professionals.

All insurers offer supplementary health insurance policies to provide additional coverage.