The Government of the Netherlands, represented by Minister of Social Affairs and Employment Karien van Gennip and Minister of Public Health, Welfare and Sports Ernst Kuipers signed agreement with the association of health insurers Zorgverzekeraars Nederland on facilitating the access of labor migrants to medical services. Practice shows that there are serious barriers on the way of labor migrants to receive medical care:
- poor knowledge of the Dutch language;
- ignorance of the local health system;
- lack of a service agreement with a family doctor.
Because of these problems, migrants rarely seek the necessary medical care or seek it when their health has already deteriorated significantly.
The agreement, concluded by the government and health insurers, is designed to remove these barriers and control the implementation of legislation by employers who hire foreign workers. The main objectives of this agreement are:
- increasing the level of independence of migrant workers;
- control of the integrity of employers;
- facilitating migrants' access to health care.
How will these goals be realized?
- By providing migrants with more information about access to insurance policies and through them to health services, in particular through the translation of information into languages they can understand.
- By stimulating insurance companies to more actively turn to health care providers in case of groundless denials of assistance or in the provision of poor-quality medical care to migrants.
- More carefully checking employers for good faith before entering into group health insurance contracts and during the period of these contracts.
- By organizing the mediation of insurance companies between migrants requiring medical care and providers of such services. Such mediation should help migrants get the help they need faster.
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Publication Date: 06.01.2023
