Relocating to a new country is a big step and it is therefore important to make sure all aspects of your new life abroad are well arranged, especially when it comes to organizing your insurances. Making sure that both you and your family can make use of Dutch healthcare is one of the first aspects you would want to organize. Because no one can predict when health issues might emerge.
Good insurances are important no matter where you live, but certain factors change when you’re living abroad as an expat. Furthermore, there’s more than just the health insurance. That’s why we’ll give you a better idea of the top 5 insurances that expats need in the Netherlands.
1. Dutch Health Insurance
Everyone living in the Netherlands is required by law to have a valid health insurance, either public or private. If you’re from the EU and staying in the Netherlands for a maximum amount of one year you can make use of the health insurance of your country of origin. If you’re not from the EU, EEA (EU + Liechtenstein, Norway, and Iceland) or Switzerland and staying longer than 90 days, you’re required to have a Dutch permit in order to take out Dutch healthcare insurance. The Dutch insurance covers the costs of basic health care including medical care, hospital, and pharmaceutical. It is also possible to get additional insurance policies to be insured for dental care, physiotherapy, and alternative medicines. The latter, however, is not compulsory, it is only mandatory to have a basic healthcare insurance.
2. Car Insurance
If you own a car in the Netherlands you are required to have a car insurance. This insurance also holds for owners of vehicles like motorcycles, scooters, campers, and quads. Car owners in the Netherlands need an insurance statutory liability, covering the damage that is caused by you. This also means that your own damage is not covered. You will need to pay for your own damage yourself. In addition to the basic car insurance, you can choose for supplementary insurances like WA Plus or All Risk coverage. The first one also covers accidents caused by animals, fire, theft, vandalism, and natural disasters. The second one covers all the above and external causes, collision, skidding & hitting the water.
3. Travel Insurance
Most people in the Netherlands do not take out a separate, one-time travel insurance, because they already have a continuous travel insurance. This means most Dutch people are covered 365 years when traveling. This insurance can be used to get financial compensation if trips need to be canceled for valid reasons, for baggage loss, or medical expenses in a foreign country. The reason why a lot of Dutch people have a continuous travel insurance? As the Netherlands is a small country it is easy to see why: we travel a lot.
4. Home Content Insurance
We firstly want to carefully point out not to confuse the Home Content Insurance with the Property Insurance. In Dutch, it’s somewhat easier to distinguish as we call the first the Inboedelverzekering and the second the Woonverzekering. Although this might get you lost, it is important to be aware of the different names in the Dutch language. The home content insurance is to protect the content of your house, such as material possessions as your computer and television. For homeownership, most people have an insurance against fire, water, storm damage, and burglary. As a lot of expats rent a property from a landlord, the Home Insurance will most likely already be covered but you still need to protect your household contents.
5. Liability Insurance
As careful as you might be, it is difficult to avoid that you or your children cause damage to somebody else’s property. The liability insurance protects persons or entities from claims made by another party. Although getting this insurance is advisable, it is not compulsory. The Dutch word for this insurance? Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering. Go ahead, try to pronounce that.
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