Dutch labor market growing ever tighter; Unhealthy people may have to pay more health insurance

Almost half of Netherlands residents (just under 45 percent) are not prepared to pay more for health insurance to maintain the quality of care. One in four think that people with an unhealthy lifestyle should pay higher premiums. The National Healthcare Institute found this in a survey of 2,000 Netherlands residents. 

Pieter Paans resigned as mayor of Krimpenerwaard with immediate effect after an incident experienced as “transgressive,” he said, Omroep West reports. “My management style of great accessibility and closeness, with all the good intentions that entail, has recently led to an internal incident in which I have not sufficiently guaranteed the necessary distance that is required from the mayor.

A ban on gay conversion therapies will have great symbolic value, researchers said in a report sent to the lower house of the Dutch parliament on Monday. Enforcing such a ban will be difficult, but victims will benefit from knowing that the government is behind them. The Cabinet wanted to know what steps it could take to combat gay conversion therapy.

Over the past few years, Netherlands residents have not regarded people from the LGBTQIA+ community more positively, said the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) on Tuesday following a survey into the views on the community. Over a period of fifteen years, Netherlands residents started to think more positively about homosexuality and bisexuality, but acceptance stagnated in recent years.