Research by the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) shows that people attach great value to additional investments in healthcare. More than 70 percent of respondents want (much) more money to go to public health, while only 2 percent are in favor of cuts. Only in housing construction is there more support (over 80 percent) for extra money.
This is in stark contrast to the plans that many parties have submitted for the calculations. Almost all parties are cutting the healthcare budget, because it is already more than 100 billion euros and will grow by another 16 billion euros without intervention in the coming cabinet period. Only GL/PvdA invests extra money in healthcare, but the merged club had to make less cuts because it passed on the bill for the higher NATO standard.
The new healthcare minister will not have enough of a scalpel for the cuts that are being made
But billions in cuts are being proposed from other quarters. For example, VVD, CDA, JA21 and D66 want to freeze or limit the basic package, so that no new treatments and medicines are reimbursed from health insurance. There is also talk of increasing the deductible (sometimes even to 440 euros) or reducing spending on elderly care and nursing homes.
A large number of political parties want an end to the basic healthcare package: ‘New medicines and treatments will only be available to those who can afford them’
But voters from all parties do not like this, according to the researchers. On the right wing there is support for cutting development aid, art and culture, integration and asylum reception. The figures show that GL/PvdA will certainly hurt its voters with cuts. They do not want to cut back on anything, only increasing the national debt will receive a little support as a solution for paying bills.
Care is no longer seen as the biggest problem
At the same time, the SCP research also shows that healthcare is far from the most important issue for voters. Less than 20 percent of respondents mention the subject in a list of ‘most important social problems’. This puts the dossier only in seventh place, after, among other things, trust in politics itself, housing, norms and values and immigration and integration.
It is a striking difference from the corona period, when public health was one of the most important topics for voters due to the pandemic. Before that, it was usually at the top of the lists of problems in SCP surveys that, as far as voters were concerned, should be high on the political agenda.
Declining confidence
The latest research from the planning agency also shows declining confidence in politics, towards both the cabinet and the House of Representatives. But those measurements are now quite dated, because they were already done in the spring, before the (first) fall of the Schoof cabinet. At that time, confidence in the government had already fallen to about forty percent.