Mental-health care in the Netherlands: the route from huisarts to psychologist, what insurance pays, and how to shorten the wait

In many countries you find a therapist yourself and book an intake. In the Netherlands that route usually leads to a bill your insurance will not pay. Dutch mental-health care runs through your huisarts (GP): the practice treats lighter problems itself, and a referral opens the door to the GGZ (geestelijke gezondheidszorg, mental healthcare), where basic insurance pays for treatment. The system has one big weakness: waiting lists. The official maximum is 4 weeks until a first appointment, and that maximum is exceeded across the country. This guide covers the route step by step, what the POH-GGZ (the mental-health professional inside the GP practice) does, what insurance pays and refuses, how to use zorgbemiddeling (care mediation) against the waiting list, and who to call in a crisis.

The entrance to mental-health care is the same as for physical care: your own huisarts. Rijksoverheid describes the division of work. The huisarts treats light psychological complaints in the practice, together with a POH-GGZ. For heavier problems, the huisarts refers you to a care provider within the GGZ. So the first appointment about sleep problems, anxiety, low moods or stress is a normal appointment at your own practice. If you are not registered with a huisarts yet, arrange that first; the huisarts guide explains how, including what to do when every practice near you is full.

The POH-GGZ (praktijkondersteuner huisarts GGZ) is a mental-health professional who works inside the GP practice. After you describe your problems to the huisarts or the practice assistant, the practice can book you directly with the POH-GGZ. In a few conversations, the POH-GGZ helps you sort out what is going on and what help fits. For many problems the POH-GGZ then gives short treatment in the practice itself, and discusses your care regularly with the huisarts. The POH-GGZ has the same professional confidentiality as a doctor. These conversations are treatment in themselves, not only an assessment before a referral.

The POH-GGZ route has two practical advantages. You start at your own practice, without a GGZ waiting list. And it is free: care in the GP practice, including the POH-GGZ, is paid in full by your insurer and never uses your eigen risico. You also do not need a diagnosis to talk to the POH-GGZ. That makes this the right first step when you are not sure how serious your problems are.

If the huisarts or the POH-GGZ concludes that you need more, the huisarts writes a verwijsbrief (referral letter) to a GGZ provider. A bedrijfsarts (company doctor) can also refer you, which matters when your problems are connected to work. You can tell the huisarts which provider you prefer, for example one with a shorter waiting list or one that treats in English. Check first whether that provider has a contract with your insurer; the insurance section below explains why. Without a valid referral, the insurer does not reimburse GGZ treatment, and the provider's bill is yours.

GGZ is the collective name for mental healthcare outside the GP practice: independent psychologists and psychotherapists, group practices, and large GGZ institutions with clinics. The government describes two levels: the basis GGZ, for light to moderate psychological problems, and the gespecialiseerde GGZ, for severe or complex conditions. Your referral describes your problems, and the provider decides with you what treatment fits. Since 2022 GGZ care is billed through the zorgprestatiemodel: each consult is a separate bill item (zorgprestatie), priced by the treatment effort and the setting. You do not have to arrange anything for this; it is how providers bill your insurer.

Inside the GGZ you can be treated by, among others, a gezondheidszorgpsycholoog (healthcare psychologist), a psychotherapeut (psychotherapist) or a psychiater (psychiatrist). You can check all of them in the BIG register, the legal, public register of healthcare professions: gezondheidszorgpsychologen, psychotherapeuten and doctors are all registered there. Only registered professionals may carry these protected titles. The register is online, you search by name or BIG number, and it also shows whether a disciplinary measure applies, such as a suspension. Titles outside this system, such as coach, are not protected: no register checks them, and sessions with such a provider are not paid from basic insurance. Before an intake with any therapist you found yourself, look the person up in the BIG register.

GGZ treatment is covered by the basisverzekering (basic health insurance) that everyone living or working in the Netherlands must have; the health insurance guide covers the policy itself. Zorginstituut Nederland states the conditions: you are 18 or older, you have a referral, and you are treated for a psychological disorder in the DSM-5 classification, the handbook used for diagnoses. GGZ costs count toward your eigen risico, so the first €385 of a calendar year's counting care (2026 amount) is your own cost; the eigen risico guide explains how the deductible works and how to spread the payments. Care by the huisarts and the POH-GGZ is the exception: it never touches the eigen risico.

Since 2025 the basic package also covers a verkennend gesprek (exploratory conversation). Your huisarts refers you, and you talk with a GGZ practitioner and a social-domain worker together about what kind of help fits your situation, before any treatment starts. This conversation is free of eigen risico. Ask your huisarts about it if your problems mix mental health with money, housing or family trouble.

Just as important is what the basic package refuses. Zorginstituut Nederland lists help that is not covered as GGZ care: problems with work, overspannenheid (stress overload) and burn-out, relationship problems, and difficulty adapting to a new situation, such as divorce, grief or losing your job. These are real problems, and you can still get help with them: the huisarts and POH-GGZ remain available for them, free. But a psychologist treating only burn-out or relationship problems is not reimbursed from basic insurance, and therapy you arrange yourself without a referral is always self-pay. The other gaps in the basic package are covered in what Dutch health insurance does not cover.

Which provider you choose changes the bill. Insurers contract a set of GGZ providers each year. Go to a contracted provider and the insurer pays the full tariff. Go to a non-contracted provider with a naturapolis (in-kind policy) and the insurer reimburses only part of the bill; SKGZ, the complaints and disputes body for health insurance, gives 75% as an example, and the exact percentage differs per policy. The provider must warn you in advance when it has no contract with your insurer. Do not rely on that warning: check the contract with your insurer yourself before the intake.

For children the money works differently. Basic insurance covers GGZ from age 18. For children and young people, the gemeente pays for mental healthcare (jeugd-ggz) under the Jeugdwet (Youth Act). The route to help for a child runs through your huisarts, the Centrum voor Jeugd en Gezin (Centre for Youth and Family), the sociaal wijkteam (neighbourhood social team) or the schoolarts (school doctor). The municipal health services around families, including the consultatiebureau for babies and toddlers, are covered in the GGD guide.

The Netherlands has official maximum acceptable waiting times for the GGZ, known as the Treeknormen: a first conversation within 4 weeks, and the start of treatment within 10 weeks after your first contact with the provider. Reality is worse. In July 2025 the NZa (Dutch Healthcare Authority) reported that GGZ waiting times remain high and that the norms are exceeded for every diagnosis group. So a quoted waiting time of several months is common, and it is not a reason to give up. Three fixes are worth using from the first week.

• Ask your insurer for zorgbemiddeling (care mediation). Every insurer must run a findable desk for this, and the NZa requires providers to point you to it when their waiting time is above the norm. Tell the insurer your diagnosis or referral, the waiting time you were quoted, and ask for a provider that can see you sooner. Your insurer has a zorgplicht (duty of care): if it cannot offer timely care from a contracted provider, it must offer an alternative or, if necessary, reimburse non-contracted care.
• Ask your own GP practice for support during the wait. Regelhulp, the Ministry of Health's help site, advises exactly this: conversations with the POH-GGZ can bridge the months until your treatment starts, and the huisarts can act if you get worse. Mentaal Vitaal, a website of the Trimbos-instituut funded by the Ministry of Health, lists more ways to bridge the wait, from online self-help to peer support.
• Ask more than one provider. Waiting times differ per provider and per problem, and GGZ providers must report their waiting times to the NZa every month. Call several, ask for the current waiting time for your specific problem, and ask your huisarts to send the referral where the wait is shortest.

In a mental-health crisis you do not wait for a referral or a waiting list. During office hours, call your own huisarts and say it is urgent. In the evening, at night and in the weekend, call the huisartsenpost (out-of-hours GP service); its number is on your practice's website and answering machine. When the situation is too serious for the GP, the huisarts or huisartsenpost calls in the crisisdienst: a GGZ crisis team with psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric nurses, reachable through a GP referral 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The crisisdienst first assesses whether there is a crisis, then gives immediate help. You do not call the crisisdienst yourself: your huisarts or the huisartsenpost calls it in.

Start with the provider: call and ask where you are on the list and what the current estimate is. Then call your insurer's zorgbemiddeling desk with that answer. The insurer's duty to help does not stop after one try, so come back when the situation changes. Keep your huisarts informed: if your complaints get worse while you wait, the practice can offer POH-GGZ support and can contact the provider about urgency. If your insurer does nothing with a clear request for mediation, file a complaint with the insurer; after that, SKGZ handles disputes about health insurers. Keep your place on the original waiting list while the insurer searches: staying registered there costs nothing and keeps that option open.

This is the system working as designed, not a rejection of your problem. The POH-GGZ conversations start sooner than any GGZ intake, cost you nothing, and for many complaints they are enough. They are also how the practice builds the case for a referral: what you discuss there shows whether more is needed. If you are convinced you need GGZ treatment now, say so directly and explain why, for example earlier treatment elsewhere, or complaints that keep returning. A huisarts may refuse a referral he is convinced will not help you, but he must clearly explain why. A practical middle road is to agree a review point: start with the POH-GGZ, and agree that you discuss a referral again after a set number of conversations if you are not improving.

This is an insurance boundary, not a judgement about how bad you feel. Basic insurance only pays GGZ treatment for disorders in the DSM-5 classification, and it explicitly excludes help for work problems, overspannenheid and burn-out, relationship problems, and adapting to events such as divorce, grief or job loss. Four routes remain open. The POH-GGZ can support you for exactly these problems, free. For work stress, you can also see the bedrijfsarts through your employer, and the bedrijfsarts can refer you to the GGZ when there is more behind it. The government funds anonymous online self-tests and treatments (e-mental health), which Rijksoverheid points to for lighter complaints. And self-paid therapy is allowed for anything; use the BIG-register check from earlier in this guide before you pay anyone.

This usually happens through the waiting list: the contracted providers quote months, an independent therapist can start next week, and the partial reimbursement, for example 75%, becomes visible only after treatment has started. Two protections exist. Before the intake, ask your insurer two questions: does this provider have a contract, and what exact percentage do you reimburse if not. And if you ended up at a non-contracted provider because no contracted provider could see you within a reasonable time, put that to your insurer before treatment starts and ask whether it will reimburse in full under its zorgplicht; ask for the answer in writing. An insurer that cannot deliver timely contracted care must offer an alternative or, if necessary, cover non-contracted care.

No rule routes you to English-speaking care automatically, so say what you need at every step. Tell your huisarts that treatment must be in English when the referral is written, so the practice refers to a provider where that works. When your insurer searches for you, ask the zorgbemiddeling desk for a provider that treats in English. When you approach providers yourself, check the website for the languages of the individual practitioners, and confirm it when you book the intake. For the GP side, the huisarts guide has practical tips for consults in English. And in a crisis, English does not block help: 113 usually has someone who speaks English if you ask.

Three related guides continue from here. The eigen risico guide explains the €385 deductible that GGZ treatment counts toward and how to spread the payments. What Dutch health insurance does not cover covers the other gaps in the basic package and when supplementary insurance is worth it. And the huisarts guide covers registering with a GP practice, which is where this whole route starts.