More people without medical insurance

Some 223 thousand people in the Netherlands were not insured for medical costs in 2004. The percentage of non-insured persons in the Dutch population rose from 1.1 to 1.4 in the period 2001–2004. As a consequence of the improved utilisation of registration data the number of non-insured persons was adjusted downwards.

Uninsured for medical costs

The number of people insured under the statutory health insurance scheme IZA/IZR rose by nearly 100 thousand in 2002–2003. The main reason for this unusually large increase was that employees of university hospitals were included in this scheme for government employees from October 2002.

The number of people insured under the national health insurance scheme and those with private insurance fell by 24 and 29 thousand respectively between 2002 and 2003. In 2003 there was a relatively substantial increase in the number of people not insured for the costs of medical treatment.

Who are not insured?

There are a number of reasons for not having medical insurance. Some people are not insured as a matter of principle. Others are refused by insurance companies for economic resoand, for example because they are in arrears with premium payments. A third group consists of homeless people and alcohol and drug addicts.

It is also probable that some self-employed people choose not to take out medical insurance to save costs.

Insured for medical costs

10.2 million people insured under the national health insurance scheme

More than 60 percent of the population – nearly 10.2 million people – are insured under the national health insurance scheme. Some 30 percent have private medical insurance and 5.4 percent are insured under statutory health insurance schemes (local government employees, police, fire services, university hospitals). These percentages have not changed much compared with ten years ago.

Han van Hussen