Delegates to this weekend’s Labour party congress voted against a motion calling for the freedom of choice in healthcare to be applied to all types of health insurance.

A motion from the Amsterdam Zuid party chapter failed to gather enough support, avoiding a potentially damaging division with Labour’s coalition partner, the right-wing VVD.

At the end of last year, three Labour senators voted against new legislation which would have ended freedom of choice for people on budget policies. At the moment health insurance companies have to pay up to 70% of the bill for treatment with care providers they do not have contracts with.

However, this does not mean that the senators will vote for the measure when it is resubmitted later this year and the dissident senators have not yet made their positions clear.

The government has already said if the senate fails to back the measure a second time it will bypass parliament to introduce the change.