There was a 35% rise in the number of people having difficulty in paying their health insurance premiums in the first six months of this year, according to research by the NRC.

The paper bases its claims on its own research involving seven health insurance companies with 14 million clients. A year ago, some 122,000 people were late in paying their premiums and own risk charges, but that had risen to 164,000 by the end of June, the paper says.
The own risk element in health insurance rose from €170 to €220 at the beginning of this year and is expected to rise to €350 in 2013.