Ministers Fleur Agema (Public Health) and Eelco Heinen (Finance) reached an agreement on Tuesday regarding the financing of the supplementary healthcare agreement. This agreement contains arrangements to keep healthcare affordable and to make it more efficient.
Sources in The Hague report to the press agency ANP that the ministers have reached an agreement. Now that there is agreement on the financing, the path seems clear for an agreement between the cabinet and the healthcare sector.
Agema said last weekend on the television program Buitenhof that the supplementary healthcare agreement with thirteen healthcare parties was almost complete. At that time, according to her, only the financing from the cabinet was missing.
With the supplementary healthcare agreement, Agema wants to tackle the staff shortages in healthcare. Innovations that can make the work easier play an important role. This concerns medical technology, which also uses artificial intelligence. Agema wants to spend 400 million euros on this in the next ten years.
Agema and Heinen disagreed for a long time on how the supplementary healthcare agreement should be financed. Agema wanted structural financing, but Heinen only wanted to commit money for 2027 and 2028.
Tensions between Agema and Heinen
Tensions ran high during the deputy prime ministers’ meeting last Friday, when Prime Minister Dick Schoof indicated that the financing would not be discussed in the Council of Ministers. And in recent weeks, Agema regularly expressed her frustration with Minister of Finance Heinen. She claimed that she had difficulty reaching him to make agreements about the money.
Heinen and Agema still made agreements on Tuesday evening about how the supplementary healthcare agreement will be paid for. The financing is only for 2027 and 2028 for the time being, but will be evaluated afterwards. If that turns out positively, the money for the agreement will be permanent. It is not yet clear what criteria will be used for the evaluation.