Health insurance company DSW, traditionally the first to announce its fees ahead of the new round of price hikes, said on Tuesday it will cut its premium charges by 50 cents a month.

The cut takes the price of the basic healthcare package to €107.50 a month, DSW said.

The company also said it will cut the own-risk payment from €385 per adult per year to €375 in a ‘symbolic gesture’ to support solidarity between the sick and the healthy, the company said.

The caretaker government said earlier it expects premiums to rise by around €80 a year and that it was freezing the own-risk payment at €385.

‘We have a good picture of this year’s costs and that shows very clearly a decline,’ DSW director Chris Oomen told broadcaster NOS. In particular, wages have not risen as fast as forecast and that is keeping prices down, Oomen said.

Last year DSW put up its fees for the basic insurance package by €9.25 a month. The big four insurers, which dominate the market, also put up their fees but not by as much.

Hospital fees

Meanwhile, consumers association Consumentenbond has called on hospitals and health insurance companies to start publishing their fees from January 1.

The organisation says patients can save hundreds of euros by picking where to have treatment.

For example, it costs €184 for a man to be sterilised at the Pantein hospital in Noord-Brabant if he is insured via VGZ but the same operation, insured via Menzis, would cost someone €586 at the Erasmus teaching hospital in Rotterdam.