There are many websites where you can compare the insurances, for example the Consumentenbond, which is probably one of the most objective websites. The best offer depends on your personal situation, your family composition, and what type of care you need.
Health insurance consists of three parts: basic insurance (=basisverzekering), the optional additional insurance (=aanvullende verzekering), and dental insurance (=tandheelkundige zorg).
Basic insurance
The basic insurance is obligatory for everyone. The contents of the basic insurance have been assembled by the government and are the same for every insurance company. More info you can find on the government website.
The insurance providers decide on the corresponding prices. The average monthly payment for the basic insurance in 2025 is € 158. Children up to age 18 are covered for free through the health insurance of their parents.
Additional insurance
There are various additional (aanvullende) insurance packages that offer you more coverage, for a higher monthly fee. The insurance companies establish the contents and prices of these additional packages themselves. You will need the additional insurance if, for example, your child needs braces, you are interested in alternative healthcare, additional sessions of physical therapy, a more extensive child birth package, or travel vaccines.
Eigen risico (own risk)
Be aware, the ‘eigen risico’ (own risk) of 385 euros has been decided by the government and is the same for every basic insurance. This means that you have to pay the first € 385 of your health care consumption yourself. For some treatments, like the GP (=huisarts), midwife (=verloskundige), and dental care (=tandarts) for children up to 18yo, the own risk doesn’t apply (they are always covered).
If you don’t make much use of health care, you’ll only have to pay parts of the own risk -if you only declare, for example, 150 euros on health care; you pay these 150 euros and not the 385 euros.
On top of that, you could choose for a higher voluntary own risk (=vrijwillig eigen risico), which will lower your monthly fee.
Spread payments
Most insurance companies offer the possibility to spread the payments of the eigen risico over the year (=gespreid betalen), so you don’t have to pay 385 euros at once.
Eigen bijdrage (own contribution)
Some treatments you have to pay partly yourself (=eigen bijdrage). For example, some insurances only cover max. 40 euros per person per day for alternative medicines. The rest of the costs you’ll have to pay yourself.
Various policy options
For your basic insurance, you also have the choice between a naturapolis, a budgetpolis, and a combinatiepolis.
From 2025, the 4th option, the restitutiepolis does not exist anymore.
Naturapolis
With the naturapolis you can only go to those health care providers with which your insurance company has a contract – you would like to check this beforehand.
There is also a budget (cheaper) version of the naturapolis, but here your options for hospitals and other health care providers are even more limited, and you’ll have to arrange most insurance issues online.
Combinatiepolis
The combinatiepolis is a combination of the naturapolis and the former restitutiepolis. With this type of insurance you may choose your health care providers yourself. However, if your insurance company doesn’t have a contract with this specific provider, it could be that you’ll have to pay part of the bill yourself.
Please note: in case of emergency you can always go to any hospital. The emergency phone number is 112.
People with a lower income may qualify for ‘zorgtoeslag’; a contribution towards the costs for health care.
CHECK YOUR CHILDCARE BENEFITS (kinderopvangtoeslag)
When both parents work, or follow an official study, or when a single parent works/studies, they can most likely apply for a tax rebate for childcare.
If you already receive this tax rebate, don’t forget to inform the tax office (=Belastingdienst) of any changes in your childcare situation. Think new hourly fees in 2025, or your child will spend more or less hours at daycare compared to past year; or your 4-year-old will switch from daycare to after-school care (BSO), or your newborn will also join daycare. Also notify them about any expected changes in your household income, or when a parent has reduced or increased their working hours or quit their job.
If you provide the tax office with the correct information beforehand, you won’t risk paying back parts of the rebate at the end of the year. You can make your changes (wijzigingen) on the website of the Belastingdienst. Login with your DigId. You could also install the Kinderopvangtoeslag app on your phone.
Trial calculation
On the website of the Belastingdienst you can make a trial calculation of how much rebate you could expect each month.
Hourly fee
You should also be aware of the maximum hourly fee (maximum uurtarieven) the rebate is based on.
In 2025, this is € 10.71 per hour for daycare, € 9.52 for after-school care (BSO), and € 8.10 for care provided by a guest parent (gastouder). This means that, if the childcare organization charges a higher amount per hour, the parents will have to pay the difference in price themselves.
From 2023, the daycare support hasn’t been linked to the number of hours that the parents work anymore. They will now look at the number of worked months per year by each parent.
The maximum number of declarable hours stays 230 hours of daycare per month.
Height of the rebate
In the table on the bottom of this page, you can get an idea of how much money you’ll get back. The rebate is higher for parents who have two or more children who attend childcare. Please note that by ‘first child’ they mean the child who is in childcare for the most hours per week, and not necessarily the oldest child.
The parents in the lowest income brackets get 96% of the daycare costs back for their 1st child, and also 96% for their 2nd and further children. The parents with the highest incomes get 33.3% back for their 1st child, and 67.1% for their other children. There are in total about 70 income brackets with each their own return percentage.
Please note that for the lunchtime supervision at your child’s primary school (Tussenschoolse opvang – tso), the tax rebate does not apply.
Moving towards free childcare
Back in 2022, the cabinet decided that childcare for working parents should be (almost) free. The exact details aren’t clear yet, but the start date has now been moved to 2027. This will hugely simplify this very complicate rebate system. Before this moment, they will have to work very hard to solve the current teacher shortage and long waiting lists.
In this Doodly video I explain the various childcare options.
The Consumentenbond (the national consumers’ organization) also provides a lot of reliable information about the various tax rebates and benefits.
Kinderbijslag (child benefits):
All parents who pay taxes in the Netherlands, receive an amount of money to cover some of the costs related to having a child. Kinderbijslag is the same amount for everyone; it’s not dependent on your income. Kinderbijslag is paid after every quarter by SVB (Sociale Verzekeringsbank).
When you register with the municipality upon your arrival in the Netherlands, they will automatically send a notification to SVB. You should receive a letter from SVB within 3 to 6 weeks after registering with the municipality.
In case this goes wrong, you could also apply here (in English).
This is what you can expect (slightly more than past year):
| Age of child | Amount of allowance per 3 months, per child |
| 0 – 5 years old | € 281.69 |
| 6 – 11 years old | € 342.05 |
| 12 – 17 years old | € 402.41 |
Parents whose children have higher (medical) costs can get higher child benefits.
People who have a lower income, may apply for the child-related budget (kindgebonden budget), housing benefits (huurtoeslag)and/or health care benefits (zorgtoeslag), paid by the tax office. All these allowances will increase per 1 January.
Nationality: Note that the above rebates are granted to people who have the Dutch nationality, or who come from another EU country, or from Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland or Switzerland. Citizens from other countries need to have a valid residence permit for the Netherlands.
An exception to this rule has been made for Ukrainian refugees, who don’t need a residence permit until at least 4 March 2026.
WHAT ELSE WILL CHANGE IN 2025?
Some other things might change in your situation. Just a few examples:
Income tax: In 2025, all working people will pay less tax on the first 38,441 euros of their annual income. The new percentage will be 35.82% (the current percentage is 36.97% over the first 75,518 euros).
The minimum wage for people aged 21 and up will increase by 5.59% to 14.06 euros per hour.
Also the AOW pensions will go up. And the taxes on gas consumption will decrease a bit. For the rest, many things get more expensive, unfortunately.
The rules for solo entrepreneurs (ZZP’ers) get more strict. They have to prove they work for more than one employer to prevent ‘fake independency’. The ZZP deduction on the income tax (zelfstandigenaftrek) will decrease as well next year.