Cross-border health care

Rulings of the European Court of Justice in the cases Decker/Kohll, Smits/Peerbooms, Vanbraekel, Müller/Fauré and Van der Duin have brought about a new and specific vitality to the question of cross-border care. While Dutch care insurers were already active with the contracts of care provision with other EU member states, the European Court has now created greater clarity in the authorization procedures.

As from 1 Janaury 2006 on, the Dutch Standard or Basic Health Insurance falls under Regulation 1408/71, which co-ordinates the social security systems in the European Union (EU). This means that the mobility of insured is regulated according to the regulations for the social health insurance systems.These regulations apply to all Dutch health insurers and insured. 

Care insurers vs. cross-border health care

As a service to their insured and in order to bypass the waiting lists, an increasing number of health care insurers offer health care in other EU member states. Naturally, the cross-border contracts are mainly in the border regions of the country, e.g. Belgium(Flandres) and Germany(North Rine-Westphalia). But some care insurers have effected contracts with care providers in other parts of the European Union, e.g. in Italy, Ireland and Spain.