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How do I choose a good health insurance?

Did you know that by properly comparing your health insurance, you can quickly save up to €100 a year? Make sure you have the right coverage. It is ultimately important that you have health insurance that suits your situation. A discount is a nice bonus, but not always the most important thing. Here are our tips for choosing the right health insurance.

Take advantage of your group health insurance

Through a health care collective, your health insurance is in many cases more interesting than the same insurance outside the collective. This is because in many cases a discount is given on the supplementary (dental) insurance policies. Moreover, many insurers offer more extensive coverage in the supplementary packages for collective health insurance

Choose the right basic insurance

There are four types of basic insurance: budget, natura, combination and restitution. The differences between these health insurance policies include contracts with health care providers.

Note that budget insurance is often cheaper than other variants, but some health insurers may not have contracts with all health care providers. As a result, there is a chance that you may incur high healthcare costs. Incidentally, these contracts only apply to
planable care and not for emergency care.

Find out if you are entitled to care allowance

In some situations you are entitled to care allowance. Check to see if this applies to you. If this is the case, you will receive a monthly amount with which you can pay part of the health care premium. The Tax Administration has more information and shows whether you are entitled to care allowance and how much.

Make a comparison for yourself

Many families want to be on one policy together. This is manageable and convenient for payments. Yet this is not always advantageous. Perhaps your partner would be better off with another insurer. If you do not have the same wishes, it is smart to both make a separate comparison.

Insure your child with the parent with the highest coverage

Children under 18 are co-insured for free. But with whom do you enroll them? Under you or under your partner? If you have the same coverage as your partner, it's not important. If you both have different coverage, register your child under the parent with the broadest coverage. Your child will then automatically ride on the same coverage. This can be useful for example for orthodontics, but also physiotherapy.

Get a second opinion

Is an expensive dental treatment scheduled for you? Then get a second opinion from another dentist. In some cases, treatment at one dentist is cheaper than at another. Ask your dentist for a referral. By the way, a second opinion is also a wise consideration in medical specialty care. Especially when you have doubts about the advised treatment or diagnosis.

Pay your premium annually instead of monthly

If you pay the premium in one lump sum, it can provide up to a 2% discount. If you have that amount behind you, you may want to consider it. The annual premium will then be written off in January.

Have the procedure done by your doctor

Some procedures can also be done by the general practitioner. The advantage of this is that you don't pay a deductible at the family doctor's office. Two examples:

  • For example, have your IUD placed by your family doctor. You then pay only the cost of the IUD. The IUD is free. If you have it done at the hospital, you do pay a deductible.
  • If the family doctor has taken blood, the collection is free of charge to you, but the blood test by the laboratory is then covered by the deductible.

Handle your deductible wisely

Do you need care in the final months of the year? Consider your deductible. Have you used up your deductible this year? Then have the treatment done before December 31. This is because on Jan. 1, you will start a new deductible again and will probably have to pay for the treatment yourself.

Medicine

Health insurers have a preference policy for medications. This means that they have a preference for a particular drug if there are several of those drugs on the market. Usually this is the cheapest drug.

Pharmacists always give you the preferred medicine because it is reimbursed by the health insurance company. If you don't respond well to the preferred medicine, you can request reimbursement for a more expensive medicine with a statement from your doctor.

If you do not have a statement from your family doctor, you will pay for the more expensive medicine yourself. Even if you have supplementary insurance, you will not be reimbursed for a medication that does not belong to the Drug Reimbursement System.

Preference policy in brief

  • Health insurers prefer cheaper drugs.
  • Pharmacists always give the preferred drug.
  • If you do not respond well to the preferred drug, you can request a statement from your doctor for a more expensive drug.
  • If you do not have a statement from your doctor, you will pay for the more expensive medicine yourself.

Supplementary insurance or not?

Are you healthy and do you expect few health care costs in the coming year? Then you can consider whether or not to take out supplementary insurance. Consider, for example, how much you will pay for supplementary health insurance and how much you expect to use it. It may well be that it is cheaper to bear the costs yourself, instead of taking out supplementary insurance. For example, look at your dental insurance. Paying for a consultation twice a year is much cheaper than the cheapest dental insurance. This will save you dozens of euros.

Make sure you are not underinsured

The basic insurance reimburses medical expenses abroad up to the Dutch rate. If the care is more expensive than in the Netherlands, you can insure yourself for this through the supplementary care or travel insurance. Make sure you are not double or underinsured. Look especially carefully at your coverage when you go to the United States, as healthcare is extremely expensive there.

Do you have questions about the above tips or would you prefer personal advice? No problem, we are happy to help! Our healthcare experts can be reached from Monday to Friday from 08.30 -17.00 on telephone number: 088 - 12 10 251.

 

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