For some health care costs, you need to pay a personal contribution (‘Eigen Bijdrage’). This means that you must pay some of the costs yourself. Your insurer pays the rest.
You will have to pay a personal contribution for some medication, glasses, medical aids such as hearing aids, orthopedic shoes, giving birth in hospital (if not medically indicated), maternity care, seated patient transport. You can check your personal contribution rates for medication at http://www.medicijnkosten.nl (in Dutch). Contact your Health Insurance Provider to learn if personal contributions apply for medication or aids that you require.
You will have to pay this contribution every time that you receive medication or a medical aid that is subject to a personal contribution, even if you have already reached your annual excess.
Note that medication and medical aids may count towards your excess. If, for instance, you have a personal contribution of 25% on your type of medication, the other 75% will count towards your excess. If you have reached your annual excess, i.e. you have incurred a total cost for all health services subject to excess of 385 € (or higher in case of voluntary excess), you will have to pay for additional medication only your personal contribution (25% in this example).
In the section Pharmacies you can read how medication is dispensed and charged.
You can opt for a Supplementary Insurance to cover the cost of personal contributions on medication and some medical aids.