You are required to retain Dutch national health insurance in many cases. However, the national health insurance coverage may not be attuned to your situation or may not offer enough coverage. The following explains why it may be advisable to take out additional health insurance in addition to Dutch national health insurance. Even if you have a country-of-residence package, additional health insurance may be convenient.
National and additional insurance not unlimited
Dutch basic national health insurance offers global coverage. However, you are not reimbursed for costs incurred abroad to any greater extent than you would be in the Netherlands. You will have to pay any excess yourself.
You may also retain your additional health insurance. Many additional insurance policies reimburse treatments abroad up to twice the Dutch rate. There is often also a maximum stay abroad for such additional insurance. You can ask your own health insurance provider whether you can retain additional insurance and what coverage is available abroad.
If the coverage of the additional insurance does not offer what you are seeking, you can consider cancelling it. But do ask how you can be insured again when you return to the Netherlands.
SOS expenses covered?
You may have to deal with expenses specifically related to your stay abroad. For example, there is the cost of repatriation (or the cost of transport of mortal remains to any other place) in the event of death, so check that these types of expenses are covered by your Insurance.
OOM’s SOS insurance offers a solution for these expenses.
Coverage for terrorism and for War and Kindred Risks?
Not every country is as safe as the Netherlands. This is why it is vital to determine whether you will be needing coverage for medical expenses arising from terrorism or War and Kindred Risk.
Discount if you have Dutch national health insurance
As a supplement to Dutch basic national health insurance, you can take out OOM Temporary Residence Abroad Insurance and OOM Living Abroad Insurance. You will then be paying premiums for both forms of insurance. We offer you a discount though. Please fill in during the application that you retain the Dutch basic national health insurance. You will receive a discount of 15% on the premium of your OOM Health insurance. This discount will be revoked at the moment you no longer carry Dutch national health insurance.
If you are a student or au pair? Then we offer you OOM Studying Abroad Insurance. For this insurance, you can't obtain a discount.
Cost Management
You can, however, opt to take a voluntarily higher excess for the compulsory national health insurance and/or Global Traveler Health Insurance or Young Global Traveler Health Insurance. You will then be able to choose where to claim the invoices first. If you claim through Dutch national health insurance first, you can subsequently claim the costs that do not qualify for reimbursement, or which fall under the excess, back from OOM Insurance. Or, equally, vice versa: you can subsequently claim invoices that fall under the excess of your Global Traveler Insurance back from Dutch national health Insurance.