Dutch Non-smokers should pay less for for their health insurance than smokers. This is the advice of the Council for Public Health Care RVZ is to advise ministers. The council wants to ensure the insurance premium dependents on the lifestyle of the insured and unhealthy Dutch should pay more for healthcare.
People who don’t smoke and those who do sports and are not overweight should pay lower health insurance premiums the government is to be told.
To prevent the charges becoming too expensive for those on low earnings, the council will recommend that the basic health insurance premium should be income-related.
The council points to the fact that that over one-third of illness in the Netherlands is caused by unhealthy lifestyles. However, the major health insurance companies reject the idea of a range of premiums, saying such a system would be difficult to put into practice. They also argue that penalising unhealthy living risks making the Dutch health care system divisive.
Health Minister Ab Klink has already come out against higher premiums for unhelathy lifestyles.
March 31st, 2010 at 3:18 am
Hi, quality write-up. As we all know, the healthcare bill passed. We still need to read the entire thing, but we all know that it is that it won’t be cheap. I’m a small-business owner, and I’m concerned about the increase in taxes. I want to hire more people, but this plan makes that extra difficult for us little guys. Here’s my problem: If it’s hard for us to hire people, how will this economy come back? Anyhow… nice site – I’m subscribed to your feed now so thanks again!