Healthcare costs will rise by billions of euros in the coming years and a new cabinet will have to do something about this, argued Bas van den Dungen, the most senior official at the Ministry of Finance, during the formation negotiations today. “It is an important task for the forming parties to curb those costs.”
Van den Dungen was invited together with the president of De Nederlandsche Bank and the director of the Central Planning Bureau (CPB). “It is important that the cabinet takes a good look at this, precisely to keep room for other necessary expenditure, for climate, defense, whatever the wishes are,” said Van den Dungen after the conversation. The forming parties do not have much room to spend structurally.
10 billion increase
In the coming cabinet term, healthcare costs will increase by almost 10 billion euros. And that is much more than any other expense item, added CPB director Pieter Hasekamp. “That increase is due to an aging population, wage increases, but also due to new wishes and technological developments.”
If a new cabinet does not curb healthcare costs, there will be less money left for other wishes, such as the climate, defence, lower taxes or higher civil servant salaries. These are structural expenditures that recur every year, and the forming parties have little room for this.
Borrow money for free
It was previously announced that the forming parties are considering additional to borrow money for themes such as nitrogen, climate and infrastructure. This would then go through special funds outside the budget. “We are cautious about such a structure,” said Hasekamp of the CPB. “If you allocate funds around a normal budget, then you go through the normal agreements.”
Borrowing money is now virtually free for the Dutch government, “but we do not know whether it will remain so in the coming years”, the CPB warns. Klaas Knot of DNB is also skeptical about this. “Everything that the government spends must eventually be financed. At the end of the day it must be paid for by taxpayers’ money. That truth does not disappear.”
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