Therapy to prevent depression is to be fully covered by health insurance, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday, quoting the health insurance council CVZ.

At the moment, therapy claims are assessed on a case by case basis.
The CVZ estimates nearly 290,000 people aged 18 to 65 develop signs of depression every year while 589,000 suffer from the illness.
The organisation says a prevention programme is far more cost effective than treating depression itself. Early intervention will cost €91m a year, whereas full-blown depression costs society €1.3bn a year, mainly in terms of lost working days.