Health insurer VGZ on Tuesday announced it is to raise the premiums on its basic policies by between €6 and €14 a month in 2015.

Patients who opt for a policy with little choice about where to get treatment face the smallest price rise.

This policy, known as the Good Choice, will go up by €6 to €97.95 a month. For this policy, VGZ has selected a number of hospitals where 15 treatments will be carried out, among them knee and hip replacements, cataract operations and a number of cancer treatments.

‘It is possible that patients will have to travel a bit further to a hospital,’ a spokesman told the Nos. ‘But they will always be able to go somewhere within a reasonable distance.’

The more expensive natura policy, which gives patients more choice in hospitals, will rise €12 to €107,95, and the policy with a completely free hospital choice will rise €14 to €113,95 a month. Patients will also have to pay the first €375 of their care costs as the own risk element rises by €15 a month.

VGZ, one of the big four players in the Dutch health insurance market, says the price rises are necessary because the cost of home nursing, currently paid for by the government from its collective health insurance policy, will be the responsibility of health insurers next year.

In September, the small health insurer DSW announced it is freezing its prices for 2015. The government said at the presentation of its 2015 spending plans it expected an annual rise in healthcare premiums of around €100.