Livia SpiesIn the Netherlands you have the chance to switch to a different health insurance provider between the 12th of November until the 31st of January. From 12 november onwards insurers present their new policies and you can decide which one is most suitable for you. You’ll be able to between the 12th of November 2019 and 31st of January 2020. If you switch before the first of January, your old health insurance will be automatically cancelled. If you change over between the 1st and the 31st of January be aware that you old insurance is not automatically cancelled! But why would you switch? Because it can save you hundreds of euros!
Fat chance you’ve never switched insurers. What a shame! A minority of the Dutch population takes advantage of the yearly opportunity to switch. Most of us are stuck with the same insurance company and it costs us loads.
By switching providers you can save hundreds of euros a year, whilst maintaining your coverage.
The 31st of December is the last possible date to switch providers. If you’ve missed this date, you’ll have to wait another year to switch. If you have cancelled before the 31st of January, you’re not obliged to immediately take out another insurance policy, but it’s best not to wait too long.
If you’re not covered by a new health insurance before the 31st of January, you might risk a hefty fine. This will mess up your plan to save money! It might even be best to take out a new insurance policy before cancelling your old one. The new insurer will cancel your old insurance for you, so you don’t have to do it yourself!
So, in short, you have two options:
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Switching providers is only possible once a year. If you take out a new policy before the first of January, you’ll hardly have to do anything. Your new provider will cancel your policy with your old provider. Sounds easy, right? But how do you find a new health insurance provider?
This is no rocket science either. You’ll just need to make sure that you choose wisely regarding premiums. There are a few things you’ll need to pay attention to before you take out a new policy. Below you’ll find a few tips for taking out a basic and supplementary insurance.
A basic health insurance covers most medical costs that are regarded as necessary. These include general practitioner visits and several basic hospital treatments. Everyone in the Netherlands is obliged to take out a basic health insurance. If you visit your GP or use other care covered by your basic insurance, this will be on the deductible until the agreed sum is met.
In this case, care costs are only covered by your insurance provider if your provider and practitioner have an agreement. Which means that you’re not able to freely pick a practitioner for your treatment.
The benefit of these types of policies is that your insurer directly pays your practitioner. You won’t have to pay for your treatment yourself and get back your money at a later date from your insurer.
A non-contracted care policy means that your health insurance provider will pay for care provided by any practitioner. It’s up to you who you decide to be treated by.
Unfortunately, this sometimes means you’ll have to foot the bill yourself before your insurance company pays you back.
You have a combination policy when your health insurance provider sometimes pays for your medical costs on the basis of a contracted care policy and other times non-contracted.
A budget policy is a more limited version of a contracted care policy. You pay less, but this does mean that you can only choose a few practitioners for treatment.
So, pick your policy! Want to be able to choose your practitioner freely? Go for a non contracted policy. Is money scarce or don’t feel like spending a lot? A budget policy might be the one for you.
Finally, you can also decide to increase or decrease your excess. But watch out, if you decide to increase your excess and you end up having high medical bills, you’ll end up paying a lot yourself.
Only go through with this option if you can afford to. Don’t do it to save money as you risk having to pay expensive medical bills in the end.
What to pay attention to when taking out a supplementary insurance. Some of us require extra care that the basic insurance doesn’t cover. Examples of this type of care are physiotherapy and unconventional dental care. To cover these costs one might decide to take out additional insurance. Check what medical costs you might expect based on your medical file.
Can’t see the forest for the trees? Very understandable. There’s a lot of things to think about when picking a new insurer. Keep in mind though that the reason for doing this is saving loads of money. It might take a couple of hours, but you could end up saving 400 euros.
Keeping your current health insurance provider, using the same policy and end up paying less?
It’s possible.
If you don’t feel like spending hours of doing research, but want to save a lot of money? We can help you. At Dyme we like to help you save money. We can contact your insurer for you and try to get you a better deal. You won’t have to do a minute of research, but you could end up saving a lot of money.
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