Medical Care

To register for medical insurance here in the Netherlands you'll first need to have a BSN which may take some time, we suggest that you check with your medical insurance in your country of origin as to whether they'll be able to cover you until then while in the Netherlands or arranging travel insurance if they don't.

Doctors / Dentists / Other Specialists – in order to visit a medical practitioner you will need to register with them first and once done, make an appointment, which will probably not be on the same day. Specialists are arranged by referral only. Your basic insurance covers all doctor’s visits.  

The most widely used healthcare reference website in the Netherlands is http://thuisarts.nl . Doctors are opposed to simply prescribing medication and antibiotics are hard to come by.  The common cold and flu are mostly treated with 2 main ingredients: Paracetamol and Vitamin C.

Homoeopathy is very common and preferred, so we do suggest that if you are on chronic medication you obtain a full history and medication list from your GP, as well as any supporting evidence such as blood test results or x-rays.

Apply for Health Insurance (zorgverzekering)

Anyone living in the Netherlands must take out basic health insurance (basisverzekering). You must do this within 4 months following your arrival in the Netherlands. Your zorgverzekering will be backdated to the day that you registered at a municipality in the Netherlands. For example, if you apply in Month 3, you will receive a bill for the last 3 months that you have already been in the Netherlands.

You can use Independer https://www.independer.nl/zorgverzekering/intro.aspx or Zorgwijzer https://www.zorgwijzer.nl/zorgvergelijker/english#/search to compare packages and choose the one most suited to your needs. Zilveren Kruis https://www.zilverenkruis.nl/en/consumers and CZ Zorgverzekering https://www.cz.nl/en offer their policies and correspondence in English.

Healthcare for Internationals is a useful, English language site to visit for information on healthcare in the Netherlands: https://h4i.nl/ You can also find more information on medicines and what is covered by your health insurance in this article: https://www.government.nl/topics/medicines/question-and-answer/what-medicines-are-covered-by-insurance