About us

Dutch healthcare is one of the best in the world. Everyone helps to pay for it, via taxes and the compulsory standard health insurance. As a result, all of us - young and old, healthy or sick - can count on good care when we need it. On behalf of the government, National Health Care Institute works to ensure that everyone in the Netherlands has access to good care, now and in the future.

Good affordable care for everyone

The population is getting older, new medicines are becoming increasingly more expensive and the costs of long-term care are also increasing. Judicious and sometimes difficult choices must be made to ensure that everyone in the Netherlands will continue to have access to adequate insured healthcare in the future. It is therefore important to ensure that the standard health insurance covers only treatments that have proven their effectiveness and that are appropriate to the needs of the patient. It is our core responsibility to ensure that this is the case, in collaboration with healthcare professionals, health insurers, care institutions, government institutions, political players, and all other parties concerned. 

Necessary choices

In making a choice as to whether something should or should not be included in the standard health insurance, we base ourselves on the knowledge and expertise of healthcare professionals, as well as scientific research on how well a treatment or medication works. Does the care provided actually improve the quality of life of patients? For which patients is a specific treatment appropriate and necessary and for which patients is it not? Finally, it is also a question of whether a treatment is worth the money.

These are complicated considerations and assessments. A decision not to cover the costs of care can have far-reaching personal consequences for the persons concerned. But these are necessary choices to ensure that good care remains accessible for the over 17 million persons in the Netherlands. 

Knowledge sharing and collaboration

In addition to advising the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport about the content of the standard health insurance package, National Health Care Institute also does other work that contributes to the quality, affordability, and accessibility of healthcare insurance. We regularly issue publications about potential improvements and also identify and point out possibilities for innovations in the healthcare sector. We make sure that data on the quality of the healthcare system is comprehensible and accessible so that policymakers, health insurers, and care providers can take well-founded decisions. And we work together with all parties in the care sector to formulate quality standards and limiting conditions for insured care.