Live or work in the Netherlands and Dutch basic health insurance is compulsory, whatever cover you hold at home.
You have four months from registering your address to arrange it, and the premium is charged back to your registration date regardless.
The average basic premium for 2026 is around €160 a month, and the mandatory deductible is €385 a year.
Missing the deadline gets you a fine from the CAK on top of the backdated premiums, so this is the first piece of admin to do, not the last.
Who Has To Insure, And By When
The obligation starts the day you register with your gemeente, not the day you find a job.
Registration is also where you get your BSN, and no Dutch insurer can process an application without one.
Two laws sit behind this.
The Zorgverzekeringswet is the basic policy you buy yourself; the Wet langdurige zorg covers long-term care and is collected as an income-based contribution through payroll, with nothing for you to choose.
An EHIC covers an EU or EEA citizen visiting temporarily.
It stops being enough the moment you become a resident or take work here, including part-time work as a student.
Take out travel or expat cover for the gap between arriving and completing your residence permit and registration.
Government guidance on the obligation is published in English at government.nl.
Children under 18 are insured free on a parent’s policy, with no premium and no deductible.
You still have to register each child with the insurer - they are not added automatically.
What The Basic Package Covers
Every insurer sells the same basisverzekering, because its contents are set by law.
GP visits, hospital care, specialist treatment on referral, prescription medicines, maternity care, mental health treatment and dental care for under-18s are all in it.
Your huisarts is the gatekeeper to everything else, and GP consultations do not count against the deductible.
Neither does maternity care, nor anything for children.
The eigen risico of €385 applies to almost everything else: hospital treatment, medicines, diagnostics.
You can raise it voluntarily to €885 for a lower monthly premium, which is a bet worth taking only if you use almost no care.
What Is Not In It
Adult dental care is the gap that catches people - no check-ups, no cleanings, no fillings once you turn 18.
Given the cost of dental treatment, price a supplementary dental plan before you decide against one.
Most physiotherapy is excluded unless you have a listed chronic condition, and then only past a set number of sessions.
Glasses, lenses and most alternative medicine are also out.
An aanvullende verzekering fills those gaps, and unlike the basic policy an insurer may refuse you for it on health grounds.
Some covered treatments also carry an eigen bijdrage, a fixed personal contribution that applies on top of the deductible.
What You Pay, And How To Pay Less
Your visible cost is the monthly premium plus the deductible when you use care.
Your employer separately pays an income-dependent contribution of about 6.57 per cent of your salary, which appears on your payslip but never leaves your account.
Zorgtoeslag
This is a monthly healthcare allowance from the Belastingdienst for lower incomes, and it is the largest single saving available.
For 2026 the income ceilings are roughly €38,520 for a single person and €48,224 for a couple, with a maximum of around €140 a month.
You apply at toeslagen.nl with a DigiD, and any Dutch basisverzekering qualifies you - the Belastingdienst’s own page sets out which policies count.
Apply as soon as you are insured, because backdating is limited and plenty of people simply never claim it.
The Other Levers
A natura policy, which pays only at contracted providers, is cheaper than a restitutie policy that lets you go anywhere.
Paying the premium annually rather than monthly earns a small discount at most insurers.
Choosing An Insurer
Since the basic cover is identical everywhere, compare on premium, on natura versus restitutie, and on whether the Amsterdam hospitals you would actually use are contracted.
Zorgwijzer and Independer both run comparison tools in English and take about ten minutes.
Zilveren Kruis is the largest insurer, VGZ and Menzis are the other big names, ONVZ is the one most often chosen for English-language service, and OHRA and FBTO sit at the budget end.
There is no quality difference in the basic package between any of them.
To apply you need your BSN, a registered Dutch address and a Dutch IBAN.
Open the bank account first, because insurers will not take a foreign account for the premium.
You can change insurer once a year: cancel the old policy by 31 December and take out the new one by 31 January, with cover backdated to 1 January.
Outside that window you are held to the policy you have.
