Parliament is set to handle a draft bill increasing the wage limit for collective ZV/OV health and accident insurance in a plenary session today, Thursday (see related story). It will almost be doubled from 67,816 to 120,000 Netherlands Antillean guilders.
That’s a rather drastic hike under any circumstance but said to be necessary to save the fund managed by Social and Health Insurances SZV. Although reservations have been expressed by the business community, there was thus seemingly no choice.
One of the concerns is an added financial burden for – in many cases already struggling – employers who must pay their mandatory share of the premium for more workers. The impact of losing a lot of clients on the local insurance sector and its personnel is not entirely clear either.
There are also questions about the private coverage premiums of those still above the limit possibly going up due to the much smaller pool of contributors. Some people might face difficulty staying insured altogether.
Relevant preparations have been made, such as a pledge by insurance companies to reimburse premiums for the part of a paid term not completed yet when the new law goes into effect. That will be on the first day of the month following its publication and can no longer take place before May 1 or perhaps even later.
There is thus time left to debate and get ready, but it appears this matter has become an inevitable “fait accompli” just like raising the retirement age to save the pension fund was. Everyone will simply have to live with it.
