The Healthcare Premium at Health Insurer DSW Willain at 158.50 euros per Month Next Year, Despite Expectations That Healthcare Costs Will Continue to Rise. A Windfall for DSW Customers, Says Director Aad de Groot.
Health Insurers Must Announce the New Healthcare Premium by November 12 Each Year. DSW is always the first to do so. This First Premium Sets The Tone for Other Health Insurers.
Healthcare Premiums Have Risen Sharply in recent years. In 2016, DSW Customers Paid Less Than 100 euros per month. Now the Premium is Almost 60 euros Highher.
Accordance to the Health Insurer, it is Possible to Keep the Healthcare Premium For 2026 The Same Due to a Substantial Surplus in The Government’s Healthcare Insurance Fund. Everyone who works contributes to that fund through their employer: it is deducted direct lly from the salary, just like income tax.
In 2025, More Money Came in Than was Spent on Healthcare Costs. The Money That Remains is Now Being Used to Keep the Premium Low.
The Healthcare Premium is the amount you pay your health insurer each months for basic insurance. Everyone in the Netherlands aged Eighteen and over is required to pay such a premium. The Healthcare Premium DEPENDS on Estimated Healthcare Costs, Purchasing Policy and Reserves. Everyone has Until the End of December Each Year, After the Premiums are Announced, to Change Health Insurers.
A One-time Windfall
For DSW Customers (or which are ARE Approximately 650,000), Keeping the Premium The Same is a Windfall: They Will Therefore Pay the Same in 2026 As This Year. The Cabinet’s Estimate on Budget Day was that Healthcare Premiums would rise by An Average of around 3 euros.
A Windfall, But According to De Groot, Certainly Not A Structural Solution. “Without the Surplus in the Healthcare Insurance Fund, the premium would have risen by around 6 euros per month,” Says the Director.
The Groot Emphasizes That Keeping the Premium The Same is Therefore a One-Off. “Healthcare Costs Continue to Rise in the MEANTIME. Everyone Should Expect Significant Increases In The Coming Years. If You had Asked Me A Few Years ago Whether the Premium Would Ever Remain the Same, I Would Have Said No.”
The DSW Director Thinks That In A Few Years We Will Probable Pay 200 euros per Month in Healthcare Premiums. “It is also not strange that the premium rises, but the premium increase should -hulling remain within inflation. This has not leg the case in recent years, and probable will not be in the coming year either.”
The fact that the premium remains the same for 2026 Therefore sacrifices No Solution to the Structural Challenges in Healthcare, Such As the General Increase in Healthcare Costs, Wage and Price Increases and the Increase in the Use and Costs of EXPENSIVE Medicines.
The Health Insurer Sees That More and More Parties Recognize That The Healthcare System Is Stuck. “But Althegh Healthcare is an Important Topic for Voters and a Large Part of the Government Budget is Spent on Healthcare, Healthcare Does Not Seem to Be A Theme in the Election Campaigns,” Says de Groot.
But that will change in the coming years. “Look, for example, at how it is used with the housing market: Nothing was done about it in politics for years, and now it is the most important Election Theme, because it has Become Such a big problem in society.” Accordance to de Groot, the same thing threatens to happen with healthcare.