Last updated on Oct 12, 2025

• Finding the right health insurance
  • Trans healthcare and insurance in The Netherlands
  • Subsidies
  • Healthcare allowance
• Finding a General Practitioner and pharmacy
  • Huisarts
  • Apotheek
  • Shared Care Agreement
• Available forms of transgender care
  • Healthcare that doesn’t require a referal for coverage
  • Healthcare available through Huisarts
  • Healthcare available through specialized gender clinics
• Other information
  • Name and Gender Change
  • NGO’s
  • Language Barriers
  • Peer support
  • Societal status of trans people
• Glossary – woordenlijst

Every person who lives or works in the Netherlands is required by law to have base health insurance. The government determines what is covered by base insurance. Depending on if a healthcare provider has signed a contract with an insurance company some or all of the costs are paid by the insurance provider. Next to that there is a yearly resetting deductible. The deductible (“eigen risico”) is a once-per-year amount that you pay for healthcare before the insurance begins to cover your expenses. While the types of care that are covered by basic insurance are determined by the government, there are still some differences between insurers, such as:

• Costs: health insurers may decide for themselves (within certain price ranges) how much they charge for their insurance policies.
• Providers & preferential medicine: health insurers may decide for themselves which healthcare providers they have contracts with and which medicine manufacturers they prefer. 
• Reimbursement: when using a healthcare provider that is not contracted, or a medicine that is not preferential, you may not get fully reimbursed. Each insurer has multiple options with different percentages up to 100%* that are reimbursed for these cases, with lower percentages having a lower monthly cost. 

*Since 2025 there are no policies that provide 100% coverage for mental healthcare providers that aren’t contracted. The organizations that provide diagnosing services for gender incongruence and can give expert statements (deskundigenverklaring) fall under this category, and will, if not contracted, not have 100% of their cost covered.

Because health insurance is mandatory, there isn’t such a thing as upfront- / copayment. You might have to pay afterward, with the insurer reimbursing you later.

Next to base health insurance, you can choose to get extra insurance. This is on top of base insurance and is optional. These cover things such as dental-, glasses, and alternative medicine coverage. 

In the Netherlands, most (if not all) covered trans healthcare is covered under the base insurance. This applies to care from gender teams (diagnosis, guidance, etc.) and to medical treatment such as hormone therapy and surgery. For some care providers, it depends on your health insurer whether it is reimbursed. It is also possible that some treatments are only covered under basic insurance if an authorization (machtiging) has been requested from the health insurer. You often also need an expert statement (deskundigenverklaring) for this, and your health insurer will assess whether they believe the care to be “necessary.” An example of this is facial hair removal for trans women. Before covering treatment, an insurance company needs to check if there is a “passability problem.” This is to prevent overtreatment, and insurance companies are mandated by the government to do this. It is best to look up information about reimbursements with your own health insurer to be sure.

Healthcare allowance (zorgtoeslag) is an amount given to you by the tax authorities to assist in paying for your health insurance and treatment. You may receive healthcare allowances for medical care, medicine, and support that are covered under basic insurance, which includes trans healthcare. You may apply for healthcare allowance with the tax authorities (Belastingdienst). Furthermore, you are only eligible for healthcare allowance if you meet the criteria, such as:

• You are at least 18 years old;
• You have a Dutch health insurance policy;
• You have Dutch nationality or a valid residency permit;
• Your household income and assets are not above a certain threshold.

The amount of money you receive depends on your income. The lower your income, the higher your allowance can be.

Getting access to most non-life-threatening healthcare in the Netherlands means a visit or call to a general practitioner or huisarts first, who then may refer you onto specialist care. This includes referral to the emergency room (for emergencies, call 112). This general ‘referral’ or ‘gatekeeper’ system also applies to many types of transgender healthcare, however in some instances, for insurance purposes, a gender team may be required to refer you, and in other instances, no referral is necessary.

Below we’ve separated the different healthcare options by whether you need no referral, only a huisarts referral, or a gender team referral.  

Some huisartsen have little experience with transgender people. If they’re reluctant or unwilling about providing care, refer them to https://huisartsenzorgvoortransgender.nl/ so they can read up on what care they should provide.

Huisartsen usually only accept new patients living within their local area. If this is the case, their website should specify the area of which they cover. Some accept anyone; on the website they will state they allow ‘passanten’. At the time of writing, some areas are dealing with a shortage of GP’s, which leads to them closing registrations (aanmeldstop). This will be stated on the website. 

All huisarts visits are fully covered by the basic health insurance. Most medication prescribed by your huisarts should also be fully covered. When medication is not fully covered, or only after you’ve paid off your insurance’s ‘own risk’ (eigen risico) budget, they may not always disclose this clearly. The pharmacy will discuss this with you. If you’re medication is not (fully) covered, you could

1. Research why, this will help when you;
2. Ask your pharmacist or doctor for advice. There may be other options for coverage, for example in a case of ‘medical necessity’ or when an alternative is prescribed.
3. Ask your insurance about the possibilities, exceptions are sometimes possible

If a GP refers you to another specialist or doctor, they are required to let you know whether the one you’re being referred to is covered by your insurance. 

Pharmacies (apotheken) in the Netherlands, like the huisarts, also require registration so they can have access to your prescription and insurance information.

A shared care agreement is an arrangement between different doctors—often a gender specialist and a general practitioner (GP)—to share responsibility for a person’s medical treatment. Under such an agreement, the specialist typically initiates and oversees the treatment plan (for example, prescribing hormone therapy and monitoring its effects), while the GP provides ongoing support, repeat prescriptions, and routine health checks close to home.

Some transgender and genderdiverse folk have started or continued HRT through this type of arrangement, often with foreign (within EU jurisdiction) doctors prescribing medication and a Dutch GP taking over that prescription.

Some transgender care is only available with a referral from a designated “gender team”. You will need a referral from your huisarts to these clinics. A list with current waiting times can be found here: https://transineigenhand.nl/voor-transgender-personen/overzicht-wachttijden-gender-teams/ . Note that it is possible to register for multiple waiting lists simultaneously.

To change your gender to an M or V (F) marker, you have to first get an expert statement (deskundigenverklaring transgender) from either a gender team or BIG-registered doctor authorized to do so. Once you have it, you then submit your change of gender (geslachtswijziging aanvragen) either:

• If you were born in the Netherlands, regardless of your current nationality or where you reside, your change of gender must be submitted to the municipality where your birth certificate is registered.
• If you were born outside the Netherlands even if you have Dutch nationality, your change of gender must be submitted to Gemeente Den Haag.

After any changes in the BRP (name and/or gender) all government entities, including your health insurance, are notified. However, you must notify your employer, bank, etc of your new details.

• Dutch Nationals can apply for a new passport and ID card from their registered municipality. When the change in the BRP is finalized, your old ID becomes invalid 
• Non-EU Foreign Nationals should apply for an updated residency permit card with the IND. Your foreign passports can have old details, but this will complicate border control. Please note that your residency permit card is considered invalid the moment a gender or name change happens in the BRP, so it is important you replace them promptly.
  
• Driving Licences can be replaced by making a request to your municipality. Please note that your driving licence is considered invalid the moment a gender or name change happens in the BRP, so it is important you replace them promptly.

Several NGOs in the Netherlands provide resources that help to figure out anything related to health insurance and funding gender-affirming healthcare. Some of these include:

• Trans in Eigen Hand has the Keuzegids Zorgverzekering which provides information on which gender clinics are contracted with which health insurance companies, as well as supplementary information on how which health insurance schemes are available and how health insurance in the Netherlands works.
• Transvisie provides a similar online guide to health insurance in the Netherlands, with specific attention to what considerations to take into account when choosing a health insurance policy.
• Transgender Netwerk and Transvisie have created a map (Transgender Wegwijzer) showing all gender clinics and gender-affirming care providers across the country.
• Transvisie provides further assistance with questions to gender-affirming care, including those related to subsidies/funds and health insurance.
• “COC Nederland exists as a generic queer aimed organization, with regional associations.”

Aside from these resources, you can also use Independer and the Consumentenbond to compare different health insurance companies and their insurance policies yourself.

Transmap resources: https://www.transgendermap.com/guidance/resources/netherlands/

If you do not speak Dutch, you may struggle with some language barriers and even more so if you do not speak English. The majority of people in the Netherlands are fluent in English and this holds true for many medical professionals. In addition, it is sometimes possible to find doctors who speak French or German as these are common languages to be taught in school. If you need your doctor to speak a specific language, it is best practice to contact the office or hospital ahead of time to check that they speak that language, and this is a necessity if the language you wish to use is not English. If you do speak English, you may not need to be as diligent with calling ahead of time, though this may be different if you are living in a more rural area. 

Regardless of if your provider speaks English or your preferred language, all communication from them will be in Dutch including emails, prescriptions, referrals, your medical chart, informational pamphlets, letters, and the voicemail or call routing system on their phone. We strongly advise that you familiarize yourself with translation methods. There are many different apps and websites out there that will translate things for you. Google Translate is popular and can translate PDFs, photographed text, websites, emails, and audio. Reverso Context is another excellent plugin that works on most computers to translate offline documents or content you find in any app your computer runs, though it supports only a limited number of languages. 

Finally, you may consider whether it is useful to you to contact a professional translator. This can be useful if your primary language is not English or if you have limited English proficiency. It can also be useful for important appointments where understanding is crucial or for situations in which your provider wishes to speak Dutch because they are not proficient in other languages. There are of course many translators you can hire and some hospitals and larger clinics also have translation services (usually phone or video based) available for all their patients. A good place to start if you are looking to hire a medical translator is Taalcentrum-VU.

We recommend that you learn a few basic Dutch phrases to better help you express your language needs. 

As a non-Dutch speaking immigrant it is also possible to receive peer support through advocacy organizations. This support can range from healthcare-related advice to connecting with other trans immigrants in the Netherlands. Examples include:

• Transgender Netwerk, who run a WhatsApp advice line for trans immigrants available in Dutch, English, Spanish and French (answer within 24 hours on workdays)
• Transivise, who host a monthly English contact group for peer support

The Netherlands remains a relatively accepting country towards transgender people. At the same time, trans people in the Netherlands still face significant challenges – both in terms of receiving care and acceptance. Healthcare is under strain, and there has been more pushback against topics such as youth care and legal self-ID in recent years, as well as an uptick in hostile political rhetoric. The Netherlands might be known as a country that is very tolerant of LGBTQ+ identities, and in many cases you will find active support networks and greater levels of social acceptance and legal protections than in some other countries, but developments that have taken place in the last few years have led to a more contested public climate than reputations of the country may imply.