Family members of foreign employees

When a foreign employee lives and works in the Netherlands for a longer period of time, it is understandable that he or she at one point wants his or her family to come over and join him for the rest of the stay.

However, if the statutory requirements (like a residence permit) have not been met, this can, among other things, cause problems to their health insurance. As a result, they run the risk that they have to pay for all medical expenses they incur themselves. This could bring major financial consequences.

Legal obligations

When a impat / foreign employee comes to the Netherlands alone, issues like housing, registration in the municipal population, work and residence permits are in most cases (with or without the help of the Dutch employer) taken care of. These issues fall under the legal obligations. The various insurance policies, including the obligatory basic health insurance package and any additional healthcare insurance, are usually fine as well. When an impat / foreign employee after some time decides to get his/her family (who have remained in their own country of residence uptil that point) to come to the Netherlands, then logically they also should meet these legal obligations.

Take care of legal obligations in time

Arranging these legal obligations, along which the residence permit could take some time. If one ignores this, it is possible that family members arrive in the Netherlands before these legal obligations are in order. As a result of the fact that they don’t have a formal residence status at their time of arrival, they will be excluded from collectively funded benefits as well as various public services. Therefore they cannot immediately obtain social insurance and are not able to take out a healthcare insurance.
The health insurance that they still may have in their country of residence, is insufficient in these kind of situations, as their stay in the Netherlands cannot be seen as a holiday.

Individual solutions for bridging an uninsured period

In order to bridge the time a person needs to take care of legal obligations and to obtain a regular health insurance, health insurance providers offer various special individual solutions. With these solutions it is still possible to insure oneself against medical expenses in an uninsurable period.
The package for this special customized health insurance approaches the basic health insurance package. When the family members in due time obtain an official residence status, this customized insurance can be disbarred. From that moment they can take out a regular health insurance for themselves or (if applicable) claim reimbursement of medical expenses through the health insurance of the family member for whom they have travelled to the Netherlands.