For example, I’m Dutch and we have to take a mandatory insurrance but the government guarentees a “basic” insurance that each insurance company have to provide (meaning that it is all the same the only difference is the pricing and oprion modules), which is done annually.
The basics is that we have “own risk” ranging of €335 to max €885, which is the initial cost that u have to cover/pay yourself and cost that exceeds this “own risk” part of the “basic” package is paid by the issurance company. The lower the own risk the higher the premiums. Some costs are not covered in the basic insurance but extra’s like Fysio or Dentist are common optional modules.
If you have a income below a certain treshhold you get subsidies from the goverment to pay for the premiums for the basic insurrance.
Edit: my post was a bit unclear that the Netherlands healthcare is Universal as some pointed out. But is done through mandotary private issurances like the one i mentioned above. The “basic insurance” is mandatory for everyone and the program is setup by the goverment, for people with lower incomes they are funded by the goverment.
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Everything is covered automatically. No need for and insurance or paying a part of the price oir doing anything. You go see your doctor or specialist and leave, that’s all
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For medicines they are covered partially (but the state pay most of the price) When you go to the pharmacy to get whatever you have prescribed you end up paying cents or like 1 or 2€
I can only speak for mandatory healthcare since I never had private healthcare. Basically, the healthcare provider gets a certain amount of money per month, half is paid by me (directly deducted from my paycheck) and the other half is paid by my employer.
Health services (surgery, er, physio, etc) and GP doctor appointments are all free, as are prescriptions etc.
Heard of taxes? Yeah that pays for like 99,9% of it. There are small fees here and there and caps at around ~110€ total a year where the so called högkostnadsskyddet kicks in and all your healthcare is completely free.
Like a hospital visit might cost you 10€ in a tiny fee and if you’re a frequent visitor you’d very soon reach 110€ and then not pay anything
Free at the point of use, including ambulances, General practicioners and nurse outpatient visits.
In the UK prescriptions are also free except in england where they are heavily subsidized and free for under 18’s, over 60’s and for seeveral types of long term illnesses and certain levels of disability and unemployment.
Appointments and surgery are triaged and depend on how well funded your local health trust is (although you aren’t limited to your local ones) so there is private healthcare as well for those who wish to jump a queue or get cosmetic surgery or anything not covered by the NHS.
There is also free therapy however this is subject to review and is heavily oversubscribed and far from universal.
Dentistry is private but capped by the government.
To expand a bit on the situation in the Netherlands. On top of OP has mentioned, there’s also, just like in Germany, a salary contribution which is capped proportional to the salary (income dependent health insurance law contribution/inkomensafhankelijke bijdrage zorgverzekeringswet). A part of it is deducted from the salary, and another part is paid by the employer. So, exactly like in Germany, but the rates are lower (5,75% paid by the employee, 7% by the employer).
The own deductible mentioned by OP, initially not present; has only been introduced a few years after the introduction of the obligatory health insurance with the intention of limiting the frivolous use of the system (e.g. use of an ambulance falls fully into own deductible). Dubbed by some a sickness tax, it has been shown to prevent a part of the insured from reporting and treating their health problems and also has led to financial problems to others — [some 330 thousand people unable to pay their health insurance in 2015](https://www.zorgwijzer.nl/zorgverzekering-2016/330-000-betalen-zorgverzekering-niet).
People with low income can apply for a health benefit covering a part of the health insurance contribution. ~~However, it does not cover any of the own deductible. Own deductible always needs to be covered in full, independent of one’s financial situation.~~
Dentists do not fall under the mandatory insurance, but are capped by the state, just like in the UK.
To give an example of the actual costs, a basic health insurance premium is around 120 euros per month these days, and the lowest own deductible – 385 euros per year. A real life example, I had been hit by a moped and had to pay circa 300 euros of own deductible for getting the wound stitched.
Everything is capped by gov.
There’s a gov mandatory insurance, costs you 175 DKK/month + 0.60% of your income.
There’s no cost going to the doctor or ending up needing medical care. Dentist is capped, but normal dental care is not covered by health care.
Here it depends on where you work, but there is one big health insurance and then smaller ones for teachers or government employees etc which have slightly better conditions. Everything that is necessary is covered, even a yearly check up, the dentist (for example white fillings for the front teeth and darker fillings for those further back that you won’t see are covered, anesthesia so you are fully asleep if you get a wisdom teeth removed is not covered for example), cosmetic surgeries are obviously also not covered unless it causes health issues in some way and so on. There might be more that’s not covered, those are just the ones I can think of. Physio is also covered, but from what I have heard the wait times are not good. Same for psychotherapy.
In Italy we have a National healthcare system which is founded by the taxpayers and it’s free of charge for all. Chronic patients and poor are exempted to pay for drugs. Dentists and psychologists are mostly private realms, so people need to pay out of pocket what the bill say. Emergency treatment are free for everyone, even non national citizens who reside here temporarily. However it’s impossible to tell you how much each taxpayer is paying for healthcare because it is inside with all other taxes and services, so no one really knows
We have the state funded NHS. Unfortunately in years to come this will become totally unsustainable as there will be more people taking out of the system than there will be putting in.
Within 50 years the NHS will cease to exist in its present form unless those who traditionally take rather than give, find work. Empirically, that’s highly unlikely.
Huh. I thought every other European country had universal healthcare. Surprising that the Netherlands doesn’t.
Well in Denmark we pay taxes making it so that going to the doctor/hospital/whatever doesn’t cost anything. No need for a deductible/excess or anything. The main exception is dentistry which is only free until you’re 18(soon until 21). It’s supposedly subsidised by the government making it cheaper, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. This is evidenced by the number of people going to Germany or Poland for larger procedures.
Medicine (not directly given to you by your doctor or at the hospital) is also covered in part, but it’s kind of complicated. Afaik the cost of medicine is reduced if you have a prescription (and might also be in general?). Your (prescribed) medicine also can’t cost more than a certain amount a year, after that it’s free. Don’t know if that’s per drug or in total, though, or if the limit is the same for everyone
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Full coverage of all health related issues except quality of vision and teeth.
For all but the most basic stuff related to teeth, laser eye correction or glasses you pay yourself. Also all unnecessary procedures and surgeries.
Free, that’s it, sure it’s paid by taxes really, but you will always be given healthcare regardless of how rich you are, where you are from or what crimes you’ve committed
In principle, everyone has to be insured at the national health insurance fund. This happens automatically when you are a child, student at university, a pensioner, or in an employment contract. People outside of those categories need to pay a small amount per month to keep their insured status (15 euro or so). This is actually a problem, because a lot of the Roma minority aren’t in any of these categories, greatly reducing their access to medical services.
If you are insured, you get hospital treatment for free. In practice, the so call ‘clinical path’ model is quite old and you may need to pay extra. For example if you’re having a complicated surgery, you will usually have to pay for stuff like consumables out of pocket. You also need to pay extra if you want to choose the ‘best’ surgeon for the job and most people opt for this one too.
Medicines are partly paid for by the NHIF, usually between 50 and 70%, with the rest being out of pocket. This is especially difficult for pensioners, who have trouble affording some medicines even at 70% reduced price.
Dentists are free for children, and adults get a certain set of subsidized treatment at a reduced price (annual check-up, filling a cavity and such).
Ophthalmologist check-ups are free/almost free as with other doctors, however paying for glasses/lenses is entirely on the patient.
GP visits carry a small fee, currently at 1% of the minimum wage, so about 3 euro. Doesn’t apply to children, disabled people and other protected categories.
You have two types of health insurance: statutory and private
Whoever didnd’t actively go for private health care is covered by statutory. No matter the income or lack thereof. There are a few way how you could accidentally lose your coverage:
* being self-employed and not paying the contribution to the health insurance that
* this generally can’t happen for regular employees because payment happens automatically, the money goes directly from employer to health insurance
* not filing for unemployment but being without any sort of income or doing exclusively black labour; trying to go off-grid
* this actually implies that the finanz authority will estimate your income and derive income tax and insurance contributions from that, without any further information they will just assume the maximum rate which, **don’t do that, just file for unemployment**
* if you went private and in those cases where you can’t go back to statutory but also are unable to continue to pay for private
But even if you somehow fail to pay you’re still covered in case of emergencies (“notfallversichert”). So no matter what happens, if you break a leg or something you won’t go bankrupt over it.
Very most people went with statutory. Private may be attractive for people with very high incomes and securities. Usually for very high incomes contribution is lower in private insurances. But they also may have variable rates and should you somehow end up as for example a nursing case the rate will significantly increase.
My father had to pay around 2000 EUR monthly for private health insurance before he died. In practice as a pensioner he didn’t have the income to finance it plus the 1500 EUR for rent and meals on wheels and another 1000 EUR health related stuff but his income wasn’t low enough to go back to statutory. In the end my oldest brother covered the difference and I didn’t press for alimony (children that don’t live at home and don’t have a finished degree or anything are entitled to maintenance).
Statutory health insurance rates follow a flat percentage (14.6% of monthly income) and thus counteract the progressive nature of income tax. People with middle incomes pay for the vast majority of the German healthcare system. Statutory insurances are still offered by insurance companies and not the state itself but they are just a proxy and in the end can’t choose to refuse clients, can’t negotiate rates (rates will be adapted through legislation when necessary) and don’t have the same freedoms in deciding what services to offer/what to cover as private insurances.
Rates for private range wildly.
It’s a complete mess between the government, insurance companies and ridiculously high out of pocket costs.
Umm… You go to the doctor, you go back home. At some point the government pays for it. End of it.
Basically every procedure has a listed price, the government pays for all the stuff done in their hospitals according to that price list and from the money that is collected via a part of the social tax (13% of your bruto salary is added to pay by the employer to the state for medical purposes, including services, medicine discounts and different sick leaves – it is a solidarity system where everybody pays the same % to the pot and the money from the pot is used for those who go to the doctor, no limits per person or anything).
We don’t have private insurance companies in Belgium, we have a few different options for the ‘mutualiteit’ which translates in to insurance company. But i only pay a yearly fee of €87 and all the other costs are covered in taxes.
The biggest difference between Belgium and the Netherlands is that we “pay” for our health insurance before receiving our salary (.In the Netherlands you need to pay your monthly insurance after receiving your salary. We don’t know that concept.
It always amazes me that my family (entirely Dutch) has to pay monthly for insurance.
Within the public system everything is covered. So just like many people have said, you just go the the doctor and leave. No money necessary. It is payed through taxes (% of your income goes towards public insurance). Medications vary, they are usually subsidised but how much you have to pay depends on many factors and can be nothing or quite a lot.
However, because the public system is not super reliable (and utterly shit in some cases) many people use private healthcare on top of that. Some just pay out of pocket, there are some package options and some quasi-insurance options.
Here basic stuffs are covered at 70% by social security, and your insurance covers the rest and stuffs that are not basic. My insurance is paid entirely by my employer, and social security by the taxpayers
Sounds like a cheaper version of what you’d have in the US. The “own risk” sounds a lot like deductibles here in the US.
Apart from dentistry, unnecessary cosmetic surgery and opticians for adults (and optional private healthcare) its all free at the point of use, ie 100% of the cost is paid for by the government
The Dutch, and German system seems complicated since there are insurance companies involved, and I seems like you have to do something in order to stay covered if you loose you job.
In Denmark you are universally covered, at least if you are a Danish/EU Citizen living in Denmark, and you don’t have to do anything when you change status from child, student, employed, unemployed, or retired.
The danish system does not cover dental work, after 18 years of age, afaik.
In England you only pay for dentist and prescriptions but those on low-incomes and benefits get those for free. Dentist costs are capped so everyone pays the same price. Again, those on low-incomes and the under 18s have free dental care.