Therapy provided by a Christian mental health group to help homosexuals ‘repress their sinful urges’ should be scrapped from the health insurance treatment list, health minister Edith Schippers said on Tuesday.

Health insurance is to pay for treatment or to prevent illness, ‘and homosexuality is not an illness’, the minister said in response to MPs’ questions.
Newspaper Trouw reported on Tuesday morning medical organisations and health insurers were against paying for a therapy designed to teach homosexuals to ignore their sexual feelings.
Orthodox
The treatment is offered by the orthodox Christian organisation Different, a recognised provider of therapies in mental health care. Because it is officially recognised, health insurers cannot refuse to pay for the treatment.
Schippers said she found it bizarre the therapy was being paid for by health insurers. ‘This is not to be tolerated,’ the minister said, adding that she will now look into removing the treatment from the approved list.
MPs from all parties said they were shocked at news of the treatment.
Support
However, Kees van der Staaij, leader of the fundamentalist Protestant party SGP which regards homosexuality as a sin, said people who opted for the therapy offered by Different deserved support.
It is not the first time government cash has been spent on alternative therapies.
Several years ago the Volkskrant reported tarot card readers, astrologers and spiritually-based ‘personal development programmes’ had been given government funding as part of efforts to get people back into work..