The Dutch health system is good, cheap by international standards, and organised in a way that confuses almost every newcomer for the first year. There is no walking into a specialist; there is a family doctor who decides. There is no free care; there is compulsory private insurance with a public rulebook. And there is a lot of paracetamol. This page explains the structure and the money, and the guides below cover the parts where the Dutch on the page actually stops you.
The huisarts: the door to everything
Your huisarts (general practitioner) is the gatekeeper. Hospitals and specialists need a verwijzing (referral) from them, and most of your contact with the system goes through their assistant, who answers the phone between eight and ten in the morning and speaks Dutch first. Register as soon as you have an address: practices near you may be full, and you cannot see a GP without being on their list. The government’s explanation of Dutch health insurance is the official reference for what a GP visit costs, which is nothing against your deductible.
The consultation itself is short, ten minutes by default, and the doctor listens for the reason you came rather than a list of everything. Newcomers are often surprised by how little is prescribed; that is evidence-based restraint rather than indifference. Thuisarts.nl, the GP association’s public site, is where Dutch patients check symptoms before they call; its self-care advice is in Dutch, and reading it is genuinely good practice for medical vocabulary.
Mental health care starts at the same door: the practice usually has a POH-GGZ (mental health nurse) for the first conversations and refers on to a psycholoog when needed.
The money: zorgverzekering, eigen risico, eigen bijdrage
Health insurance (zorgverzekering) is compulsory for everyone who lives or works here, must be taken out within four months of registering, and is backdated to your arrival, so waiting does not save money. The basic package (basisverzekering) is defined by law and identical across insurers; what differs is the premium, the service and the supplementary packages. The independent SKGZ, which handles disputes with health insurers and answers general questions, has an English section and an international phone line. Lower incomes get a monthly allowance towards the premium, the zorgtoeslag, which is covered in the guide to applying for toeslagen.
Two words decide what you actually pay. The eigen risico is the yearly deductible: the first slice of hospital, specialist and prescription costs each calendar year is yours, and GP visits are always excluded. The eigen bijdrage is a co-payment on specific things such as some medicines and hearing aids. The current deductible amount is on the government’s health insurance page.
| Dutch | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|
| zorgverzekering | health insurance | mandatory; the basic package is set by law |
| basisverzekering / aanvullend | basic / supplementary | adult dental care is supplementary |
| eigen risico | yearly deductible | not charged on GP visits |
| eigen bijdrage | co-payment | on specific medicines and aids |
| verwijzing | referral | needed for specialists and hospital care |
| huisartsenpost | out-of-hours GP service | evenings, nights, weekends: call first |
| spoedeisende hulp (SEH) | emergency department | only via 112 or the huisartsenpost |
| recept / herhaalrecept | prescription / repeat prescription | repeats can be ordered online |
The apotheek, the leaflet and the repeat prescription
Prescriptions go to the apotheek (pharmacy) you register with; over-the-counter basics come from the drogist (Kruidvat, Etos) instead. Every box comes with a bijsluiter, the patient leaflet, and being able to read its dosage and warning sections is the single most useful piece of medical Dutch you can learn: reading the bijsluiter goes through one line by line. Ongoing medication is reordered without seeing the doctor again: ask the apotheek for a herhaalrecept (repeat prescription), by phone or through the pharmacy’s own site.
The tandarts
Dental care for adults is not in the basic package, so most people take a supplementary policy or pay per treatment; either way you register with a tandarts and go about twice a year. The tandarts: Dutch dentistry, insurance and registering covers how to get on a practice’s list, what happens in the chair, and how the bill is built. In the big cities some practices have waiting lists, so register before you have a problem rather than during one.
You can check any Dutch healthcare professional’s registration in the public BIG register, and in an emergency you call 112 and say where you are before anything else.
Where to start
- Register with a huisarts the week you have an address, and take out insurance within four months, because it is backdated anyway.
- Learn to read a medicine leaflet before you need to: the bijsluiter, decoded.
- Get on a dentist’s list early: the tandarts cheat sheet.
- Set up repeat prescriptions with the apotheek rather than rebooking the huisarts: the word is herhaalrecept.
- Save 112 and your regional huisartsenpost number in your phone today.
What we checked
The claims on this page that decide money, a deadline or a legal right, with the source each came from and the date we last read it.
- Health insurance is compulsory for everyone who lives or works in the Netherlands, and the basic package is defined by law and identical across insurers. government.nl