Dutch basic health insurance does not pay for your teeth.
For anyone over 18 the basisverzekering covers surgical dental work, X-rays and removable dentures, and stops there.
Check-ups, cleaning, fillings, crowns, bridges and root canals are yours to pay for, in full, whatever your premium.
This catches more new arrivals than any other gap in the system, usually at the moment the receptionist asks how you would like to settle the bill.
What the basic package does cover
Under 18 the picture is almost the reverse.
The basic package covers periodic check-ups, scale and polish, fillings and surgical dental treatment for children, and none of it touches the excess, since under-18s have no eigen risico at all.
Braces are the exception and are not included.
For adults, three things survive.
Surgical dental care, meaning the sort of work an oral surgeon does in a hospital.
Radiographic examination.
And removable dentures, where the basic package pays and you contribute 25% of the cost yourself.
There is also bijzondere tandheelkunde, special dental care, which covers orthodontics and implants at any age where there is a serious developmental disorder or abnormality of the mouth.
It is a narrow door and it is opened by a dentist making the case, not by asking.
The prices are capped, and published
Dentists in the Netherlands cannot charge what they like.
The Nederlandse Zorgautoriteit sets maximum tariffs for every treatment code, and they run from 1 January to 31 December.
For 2026 the ones you will meet are:
- C002, periodic check-up: 28.51 euro
- C001, first consultation with a new patient: 57.01 euro
- M03, cleaning, per five minutes: 16.82 euro
- X10, small X-ray, taking and assessing: 21.00 euro
- V71, single-surface amalgam filling: 31.51 euro
- V91, single-surface composite filling: 60.01 euro
- H11, extraction of a tooth: 56.26 euro
- E13, root canal treatment, one canal: 135.03 euro
Dentists’ maximum tariffs fell by about 1% for 2026 while implantology rose sharply.
The codes are printed on the invoice, which means you can check a bill line by line against the published list.
Do that once and you will understand Dutch dental billing permanently.
A check-up and a clean, the usual twice-yearly visit, lands around 60 to 90 euro depending on how many five-minute cleaning units it takes.
Dentists in The Hague are a crowded field and many practices are open to new patients even where GPs are not, so registering is usually a matter of a phone call.
Is dental insurance worth buying
Aanvullende tandartsverzekering is the supplementary policy people buy after their first bill.
Do the sum before you sign, because the answer is often no.
These policies reimburse a percentage of dental costs up to an annual ceiling, and both figures are printed on the product page.
Multiply the monthly premium by twelve and compare it with the ceiling.
Where a year of premiums comes to within a hundred euro of the most the policy will ever pay out, it is not insurance so much as an inefficient savings account, and the twice-yearly check-up at 28.51 euro will not get you near the ceiling on its own.
The asymmetry matters here.
Insurers must accept everyone for the basic policy, but they have no such duty for supplementary cover, and they may refuse you or charge more because of your age or your dental history.
Buying a top dental tier the year you need a bridge is not a plan that works.
Where it more often earns its keep is children’s orthodontics, which is excluded from the basic package and, unlike a check-up, runs across years rather than appointments.
That is the one case where the arithmetic tends to go the other way, and orthodontic add-ons are sold separately for exactly that reason.
Comparing policies is worth the evening it takes, since this is the part of the market where insurers genuinely differ.
Physiotherapy, which is covered but not in the way you expect
Physiotherapy and oefentherapie sit only partly in the basic package, and the rule that governs it is unusual.
For adults, treatment is reimbursed from the twenty-first session onwards, and only for conditions on the government’s official chronic list.
The first twenty you pay for yourself.
That is the opposite of what most people assume.
A wrenched back, a running injury, a stiff shoulder: none of these is covered by the basisverzekering for an adult, at any number of sessions, unless the underlying condition is on the list.
Children are treated differently.
Under 18s get the first nine treatments from the basic package, with more available if nine proves insufficient, and full cover where the condition is chronic.
There are three carve-outs worth knowing.
Pelvic physiotherapy for urinary incontinence is covered for the first nine treatments.
Osteoarthritis of the hip or knee gets up to twelve sessions of supervised exercise therapy.
COPD at stage 2 or higher gets all supervised exercise therapy, while stage 1 gets none.
Note also that basic-package physiotherapy, unlike GP care, does count towards the 385 euro excess.
The sessions are covered and then charged against your own money until the excess is used up.
You do not need a referral
Direct access has applied for years and it still surprises people.
No referral letter from your GP is needed to see a physiotherapist or an exercise therapist, with fall-prevention training the single exception.
You ring a practice and book.
That makes physiotherapy one of the few things in Dutch healthcare you can reach without first getting onto a GP list, which in this city is the slower half of the problem.
The therapist does an initial screening to decide whether the complaint is suitable for direct treatment or needs a doctor’s eye first.
If you want the twenty-first session onwards reimbursed you will need the chronic diagnosis documented, and that does come from a doctor, so the referral question returns eventually for anyone in that position.
Rates for private sessions are not capped the way dental ones are.
Expect a range across the city, ask the price when you book, and ask specifically whether the first session, which is longer, is charged differently.
Physiotherapists in The Hague commonly contract with the larger insurers, and a contracted practice bills the insurer directly where an uncontracted one may not.
Everything else in the same gap
Osteopathy, chiropractic and most manual therapy outside a physiotherapy practice are not in the basic package at all and appear only in supplementary policies, usually with a per-session cap and a number of sessions per year.
Osteopaths and chiropractors in The Hague are private providers, and the discipline is not regulated in the way physiotherapy is.
Glasses and contact lenses are also outside the basic package for adults.
Under 18 there is a contribution of 66 euro per spectacle lens, and contact lenses carry a 66 euro own contribution per lens where they are covered.
Hearing aids for adults come with a 25% own contribution, and orthopaedic shoes for over-16s cost 135 euro a pair from your own pocket.
The pattern across all of it is the same: the basisverzekering pays for illness and leaves maintenance to you.
Care that keeps something from going wrong, whether that is a scale and polish or a new pair of lenses, generally sits outside it, while care that treats a diagnosed condition sits inside and is charged against the excess.
Prescribed medicines follow exactly the same logic, which is why the paracetamol you buy yourself is never reimbursed and the tablets on a prescription are.
If money is the problem
The gemeente’s collective policy with VGZ is the answer most people miss.
The Den Haag package includes 500 euro of dental care and 20 physiotherapy treatments, plus 150 euro towards glasses every three years, and on that package the eigen risico is fully insured.
Eligibility runs to 150% of the bijstandsnorm with capital below 8,000 euro single or 16,000 euro for a household, and you can switch into it each year between 12 November and 31 December.
That is a materially better dental and physiotherapy deal than anything on the open market, and it is the one piece of Dutch healthcare where being on a low income in this particular city genuinely helps.
It is worth checking against what a year in The Hague actually costs before assuming you are above the line.
For anything urgent with a tooth outside surgery hours, the route is not the out-of-hours GP post, which does not treat teeth.
Your own dentist’s answering machine names the duty practice.
Sources
- Rijksoverheid, krijg ik tandartskosten vergoed: the basic package covering periodic check-up, scale removal, fillings and surgical dental care for under-18s; surgical dental care, radiographic examination and removable dentures for adults; and special dental care covering orthodontics and implants where there is a serious developmental disorder or abnormality of the mouth
- Zorgwijzer, tandartskosten tot 18 jaar and orthodontie tot 18 jaar: no excess for under-18s, orthodontics excluded from the basic package, and a full denture reimbursed at 75% with a 25% own contribution
- NZa performance and tariff decision for dental care 2026, TB/REG-26616-01, effective 1 January to 31 December 2026: C002 at 28.51 euro, C001 at 57.01 euro, M03 at 16.82 euro per five minutes, X10 at 21.00 euro, V71 at 31.51 euro, V91 at 60.01 euro, H11 at 56.26 euro and E13 at 135.03 euro
- VergelijkMondzorg, tandartstarieven 2026: the 1% fall in dentists’ tariffs, the 11% fall for orthodontists and the 17% rise in implantology
- Rijksoverheid, is fysiotherapie opgenomen in het basispakket: reimbursement from the twenty-first treatment for adults with a condition on the chronic list, nine treatments for under-18s with more if needed, nine pelvic physiotherapy treatments for urinary incontinence, twelve supervised exercise therapy sessions for hip or knee osteoarthritis, full cover for COPD stage 2 and above, and no referral needed except for fall prevention
- Rijksoverheid, acceptatieplicht zorgverzekering: the duty to accept for the basic policy and the absence of that duty for supplementary cover
- Rijksoverheid, wanneer betaal ik een eigen bijdrage: 2026 own contributions of 25% for hearing aids and full dentures, 135 euro per pair of orthopaedic shoes for over-16s, 66 euro per contact lens and 66 euro per spectacle lens under 18
- Rijksoverheid, eigen risico zorgverzekering: the 385 euro excess for 2026 and the exemption list, which does not include physiotherapy
- Gemeente Den Haag, Haagse zorgverzekering bij VGZ: 500 euro of dental care, 20 physiotherapy treatments, 150 euro for glasses every three years, the fully insured excess, the 150% bijstandsnorm ceiling, the capital limits and the 12 November to 31 December window
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