Health insurer Interpolis is to scrap a number of treatments, including homeopathy, from its top-up healthcare packages.

From 2014, acupuncture and homeopathic medicines will no longer fall under the insurance package top-up policies, RTL news reports. In addition, spectacles, maternity nurse packages, vaccinations for long-distance travel and aids to stop bed wetting will be scrapped.

‘Compare it with shopping at Albert Heijn,’ CEO Arné van der Boom told the broadcaster. ‘Everything you put into the shopping trolley must be paid for. Even things that sit in the cupboard and are never eaten.’

The cost of a basic healthcare insurance policy from Interpolis will fall to €92 in 2014.

The government determines what should be covered in the basic policy but insurance firms are free to decide their own top-up policies.