Posted by The Belgian public health insurance scheme is one of the best in Europe, according to OECD data, 99% of Belgian residents can access treatment through the public healthcare system.
To access public health insurance, you need to first register to social security, this is usually done by your employer if you are working in Belgium. Afterward, you need to have a subscription with one of the health insurance companies (mutuality) such as CM, Neutraal Ziekenfonds, Partena… They will facilitate the process to pay back the reimbursement of your medical bills. The subscription prices are similar, I pay around 8 euros per month. As you might already notice, 8 euros per month is surely not enough to cover the individual yearly reimbursements, what covers it is the social security (RSZ) which is contributed by (mostly) the employers and also employees (13% of your gross salary). For more information, you can also check one of the posts written by my friend Toon some years back here.
Once you register, you should try to discover what is covered by your mutuality, most people do not bother to check it out, but keep reading, it might help you to live a healthy life and save quite a bit.
In this article, I will use Neutraal Ziekenfonds Vlaanderen (NZVL)- the mutuality I subscribed to as an example, if you have another one, feel free to check with them for details!
1. Doctor consultation
This one is quite obvious, whenever you go to visit a doctor, whether it is a general practitioner or a specialized one, you will get up to 85% of a refund after the payment.
A suggestion is to visit a family doctor first, as they can introduce you to more specialized doctors if necessary and are usually quite cheap, you can get a maximum refund.
In Brussels, it is quite often that doctors speak only French, which can be discouraging for the patients. If you do not speak Dutch or French very fluently, I suggest you find a doctor in the Flemish region, most of them do speak English,
2. Dental
Belgian public health covers up to 75% of the reimbursement of your basic dental treatment such as checkups, dental radiographs, fillings, and cleanings, but you need to make sure you visit the dentist annually to maintain the eligibility, read more about it on: The oral care process: better reimbursement for regular dental visits.
If you need more advanced dental treatment, you should consider subscribing to a dental specialized insurance fund.
3. Eyeglasses and contact lenses
For NZVL, if you go for a new pair of eyeglasses or contact lenses, you can claim 50 euros back per year, I did not check extensively other health insurance companies, but you should ask yours for more info.
4. Laser treatment for the eyes
If you want to go for laser treatment for your eyesight, you will also get refunded, for NZVL, you can claim up to 250 euros (125 euros per eye),
5. Surgery to remove mols
This year I removed one of the mols on my face via surgery (not for medical reasons), surprisingly more than half of it was reimbursed by the mutuality.
6. Claim sports club membership fees from the health insurance
Sport is healthy, to encourage people to be more active, the mutuality also provides some amount per year reimbursement if you subscribe to any sports club, for NZVL it is 30 euro per year per person.
The sports in scope are various, such as athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, bowling, dancing (including ballet), diving and so much more! If you are in a sports club anyway, why not take the opportunity to claim some reimbursement?
7. Maternity leave
When you are getting a newborn in the family, the 15 weeks maternity leaves for the mother and the 7 days (out of 10) for the father are all paid by your mutuality.
For more details about all the legal leaves in Belgium, check my previous blog post: 11 legal leaves in Belgium might be applicable for you.
8. Breastfeeding breaks during work – 30 min per day:
If you are a new mom who goes back to work. you are entitled to 1-2 half-hour per day breastfeeding break to breastfeed your baby or pump the milk until 9 months after the baby is born.
The interruption of the working hour is not paid by the employer but by the health insurance fund, you will be paid 82% of your gross salary.
9. Drugs
In Belgium, you will receive the full or partial reimbursement of your medication provided that it is prescribed by a doctor and is included on the list of reimbursed medications.
If you go to a pharmacy with a drug prescription from your doctor, then you are only paying for your personal share after the deduction by the mutuality.
10. Hospitalization insurance
A stay in the hospital requires hospital insurance, which is separate from health insurance. Most employers provide hospitalization insurance as part of the employment benefit.
Write to your HR or insurance provider and find out what scheme they cover. One of my previous employers provides very good hospitalization insurance (DKV), it covers all the remaining payment of your doctor visit (after mutuality), and also covers more than 70% of your eyeglasses. However, most of the time, such info is not well communicated.
Read more about Belgium:
Manage your resignation in Belgium
What should you do after getting a job offer in Belgium
How can you spend the 250 euro eco cheques?
Tas refund in Belgium – Optimise your income tax
Health insurance, are you using it to its full potential?
Check all the leaves you might have missed while working in Belgium
Back to school – working student in Belgium
Fun facts about divorces in Belgium
Holiday periods – Belgium vs China
Getting to know about Flemish people
Recommended movie – Dying to survive 我不是药神 (2018)
I’d like to recommend a very good Chinese movie called Dying to Survive (IMDB 7.9/10), it tells a story (based on real one) about people struggling to access drugs against Chronic Granulocytic Leukemia, moving and intriguing.
References and more info:
https://www.expatica.com/be/healthcare/healthcare-basics/health-insurance-in-belgium-445867/
https://www.ing.be/en/retail/my-life/family/belgium-healthcare
https://www.riziv.fgov.be/nl/professionals/individuelezorgverleners/tandartsen/verzorging/Paginas/mondzorgtraject.aspx
Everything you have always wanted to know about social security – Update september 2018 (.pdf)
https://www.partenahealthinsurance-expats.be/en/health-insurance-in-belgium/pharmacy
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
14 comments