The number of smokers is not expected to rise when changes to the basic health insurance package come into force, health minister Edith Schippers said in a written answer to a D66 MP.

The minister is taking stop smoking medicine and nicotine replacements out of the basic health insurance package but not all stop smoking support is being scrapped, reports Trouw.
She says advice can still be asked from GPs and nurses and that ‘more intensive forms of help aimed at changing behaviour will still be covered.’
‘People will be able to pay for medicine and nicotine replacements from the money they save in giving up smoking,’ says Schippers.
According to D66 MP Pia Dijkstra, the number of smokers fell to 24.3% of the population compared with 26.3% in the second quarter of 2011.