Supplementary health insurance is slowly falling out of favor | Economy

Around the turn of the year, everyone was able to choose a new health insurance policy again. As many as 1.3 million policyholders changed health insurer. Only last year was this percentage higher. The health insurance with the lowest health premium was particularly popular, preliminary figures showed earlier this year.

Fewer and fewer Dutch people are opting for supplementary health insurance, according to figures from Vektis, which collects data from insurers. 81.5 percent of all insured persons took out a supplementary package.

Last year that was still 82.5 percent. Long ago, more than 90 percent of policyholders took out a supplementary package.

The fact that people choose a supplementary package less often is partly because they try to save on their monthly expenses. Moreover, additional premiums are often approximately the same as the reimbursement you receive for new glasses or physiotherapy. It is therefore not always worthwhile to take out additional insurance.

At the same time, the premium for basic insurance increases every year. This year, the Dutch will pay an average of 1,747 euros per year, 103 euros more than a year earlier. By cutting back on a supplementary package, people can limit the costs of their health insurance.

Another factor is that collective health insurance is on its way out. Health insurance through an employer or patient association often also included a supplementary policy, and now collectively insured people more often opt for a supplementary package.

But since insurers are no longer allowed to give discounts to collective groups for special health insurance, this policy has become much less popular. Barely half of the people still choose this. That was up from a third in recent years.

In recent years, some consumers have saved on health insurance by voluntarily increasing their deductible. You can choose to pay a higher deductible for medical costs within your insurance than the standard 385 euros. You can then receive a premium discount for this.

That increase is only interesting for healthy people and therefore not very supportive of, for example, the chronically ill. It is striking that this voluntary increase has actually become less popular this year.

The percentage of policyholders who opt for this this year is even the lowest since 2018, at 12.7 percent. One of the reasons for this is that insurers are offering less premium discounts this year.