Just over 2,500 individuals and organisations have responded to health minister Edith Schippers’ call for ideas about where to cut spending on healthcare, coming up with almost 4,000 ideas.

Most of the suggestions centred on pregnancy and childbirth, alternative medicine and prevention, the health ministry said in a statement.

Many people said they did not want to contribute to the cost of pregnancy care because they did not use it themselves. Others said that having children ‘is not an illness but a choice and should be funded by the individual,’ the ministry said.

Alternative medicine

A large number of suggestions centred on alternative medicine and the ministry said it appeared some providers had called on their patients to suggest their treatments did become part of the basic health insurance package.

Others said alternative medicine should not be paid for by the national health insurance scheme.

There was also considerable support for ensuring people with unhealthly lifestyles or who took part in dangerous sports should shoulder more of the bill.

The minister’s report on the suggestions is being sent to the health insurance council for its opinion.