The government’s healthcare advisory council RVZ has called on politicians to be more objective in the way they decide what treatment should be included in the basic healthcare package.

‘It is completely unclear why one treatment is included and another is not,’ RVZ board member Anton Westerlaken says in today’s Volkskrant.
For example, IVF fertility treatment was first included in basic insurance policies, then only the second and third treatment was included. And after that came a proposal to ask patients to pay €500 towards the service, the paper says.
Politicians are taking decisions based on individual cases, lobby groups and media reports rather than objective criteria, the report said.
‘There is a tv item, then questions in parliament and then something has to be done,’ Westerlaken said. ‘Many people have not got a clue where they stand any more.’
Although people in the Netherlands have to take out private health insurance, the government decides what basic coverage they should be given.