According to the new regulations, those who follow university studies abroad must follow the laws of the country in which they will complete education. This means that the European Health Insurance Card is no longer a valid medical insurance. If you have a job aside from your studies or you want to have an internship, you are considered employed and it is mandatory to have a dutch health insurance. 

“Basiszorgverzekering” is the basic medical insurance which you can get at any dutch medical company (Bewuzt, CZ, Unive, Zilverkuis, Anderzog etc). The offers vary, but all include consultation at your general practitioner (“huisarts”), at specialist doctors with a referral (including psychological assistance), ambulance, hospitalization, certain medication and treatment in some more serious cases. Stomatological services are not included in the majority of offers, but for a more extended package of insurance, you can obtain this as well. The costs of a basic medical insurance start from 93 Euro/month.

LSRS TIP: In certain situations, you can be considered suitable for governmental help for this insurance. For these subventions, you have to be employed and have a work contract with an annual income below a certain amount (ref. 2019= 29.562 Euro). You can find all the requirements here, and if you fulfill everything you can apply on the subsidy page

However, there is a certain amount of health expenses you have to pay yourself. This is the “eigen risco” amount (own risk), which is 385 Euro/year. More specific, from health expenses, the insurance company pays everything above that amount. To pay less on a monthly basis, you can assume a higher risk - up to 885 Euro/year.

In order to get a dutch medical insurance, follow the steps:

1. Obtain a BSN
2. Register on Digid.nl
3. Go on a website to compare insurance offers (e.g. independer.nl), you connect with your Digid and you choose which offer suits you the best
4. After you submit the form to the insurance company, you will get your insurance card, together with access to the online platform. The access is based on DigiD
5. The payment is done (automatically) once a month from your bank account
6. It is important to register to a “Huisarts” or GP
7. At the end of the year, if your medical expenses were higher than the eigen risco and the company paid for it, you will be contacted to pay for the eigen risco amount. At certain insurance companies you might pay this amount in installments.

LSRS TIP: We know life in the Netherlands might be hard when you are a student, so we gathered on this page we put together some allowances you might be eligible to.