Health insurers no longer in doubt about long-term care cuts

Junior health minister Marlies Veldhuijzen van Zanten told parliament on Tuesday she thinks she has quelled health insurers’ doubts about her plans to cut the budget for long-term healthcare.


The minister said health insurers who criticised the feasibility of her plans have now dropped their opposition under certain conditions.
Currently 130,000 people receive a personal care budget (pgb) to choose their own care services. Veldhuijzen van Zanten wants to cut the number to 13,000. She says the changes will save €900m a year without any lowering of standards.
Health insurers said the plans were ‘unfriendly to clients’, would lead to more bureaucracy and with criteria that were too informal.
Clear and simple
The minister has now said she will write out the criteria in ‘clear and simple’ words by January 1 2012 when the changes are due to come into force.
She also said she will stay in contact ‘where necessary’ with health insurers who have to negotiate contracts with new healthcare providers.
Labour, the Socialists, D66, the ChristenUnie and GroenLinks had seen the insurers’ criticism as supporting their opposition to the cuts. They still think the plans are based on ‘quick sand’ and want the minister to delay their introduction.
However, Veldhuijzen van Santen will not wait. ‘Delaying the introduction makes it look as if the changes are not necessary, which is not the case,’ she told parliament.

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