You do not have health insurance – can you get healthcare benefit?

Unfortunately, you cannot get healthcare benefit without health insurance (zorgverzekering).

However, most people are insured. If you live of work in the Netherlands, you are required by law to take out a basic health insurance (basisverzekering) with a Dutch health insurance company. If you work abroad, you usually do not have Dutch health insurance.

Are you getting healthcare benefit and cancelling your health insurance?

This may happen if, for example, you are moving abroad. Make sure to cancel your healthcare benefit as quickly as possible.

How do you cancel your healthcare benefit?

If you take out health insurance again, you can apply for healthcare benefit yourself.

Do you have health insurance but your benefits partner does not?

In that case, you can still receive healthcare benefit. However, you will only receive half of the combined amount you and your benefits partners would normally receive. Until 2020, you were usually not entitled to healthcare benefit in this situation.

You do not get healthcare benefit if you do not pay your healthcare premiums

Being late with a payment once in a while is not a problem. You may sometimes be temporarily unable to pay. However, if you do not pay your premiums for more than 6 months, the consequences can be serious. In that case, you will not receive healthcare benefit until the debt to your health insurer is paid.

If you do not pay the premiums for your health insurance for 6 months or more and do not reply to payment reminders, your health insurer will inform the CAK that you are behind on payments. At the request of the CAK, we will pay out your healthcare benefit to the Centraal Justitieel Incasso Bureau (Central Judicial Collection Agency, CJIB) from that moment onward. We will do this until the debt to your health insurer has been paid. You will receive a letter from the CJIB about this.