On 2 December 2025, two very different stories dominate Dutch life.
In West-Friesland and Purmerend, tens of thousands of people can breathe a little easier: Dijklander Hospital has secured contracts with most health insurers for 2026, limiting the risk of surprise hospital bills. At the same time, the country’s orthodox Protestant heartland is shaken by a historic split in the Christelijk Gereformeerde Kerken (CGK), a schism that could literally divide families and local congregations. [1]
This article unpacks both developments and explains what they mean in practice — for your health insurance in 2026 and for the future of one of the Netherlands’ most closely knit church communities.
1. Health Insurance 2026: What Dijklander’s New Contracts Mean for West-Friesland and Purmerend
Most residents can still go to Dijklander in 2026
According to regional reporting, Dijklander Ziekenhuis has now signed agreements for 2026 with the majority of health insurers that cover residents of West-Friesland and Purmerend. Only VGZ and Menzis are reported to still be in talks about next year’s contract.
That means that for many policyholders, care at Dijklander in Hoorn and Purmerend will remain fully reimbursed under the basic insurance in 2026, just as in 2025 — provided they don’t have a very restrictive budget policy.
On its own website, the hospital publishes a 2026 overview of contracted insurers, stressing that reimbursement always depends on two things:
- Which insurer you’re with, and
- What type of policy (restitution, natura, budget, etc.) you have. [2]
In short: the headline message is reassuring, but you still need to check the fine print.
Which insurers are definitely contracted?
Because hospital–insurer contracts are negotiated individually, there isn’t one single master list. But several publicly available sources give a fairly clear picture for Dijklander:
- CZ lists Dijklander’s locations in Hoorn and Purmerend as fully contracted hospitals in its 2026 online “zorgvinder”. [3]
- Zilveren Kruis shows Dijklander Hoorn and Purmerend as contracted hospitals where basic care is reimbursed at 100% (minus any deductible), in its 2026 overview of contracted hospitals.
- Comparative platforms such as Zorgkiezer track ongoing negotiations and report that for Dijklander, CZ already had a 2026 contract in place by mid‑November, while negotiations with VGZ, Zilveren Kruis and Menzis were then still ongoing — consistent with the picture that Zilveren Kruis has since moved to “contracted” status and that only VGZ and Menzis remain at the table. [4]
Put together, these sources support the core message in the Noordhollands Dagblad headline: for most insured residents of West-Friesland and Purmerend, hospital costs at Dijklander will be covered in 2026 — but two big insurers (VGZ and Menzis) haven’t signed yet, so some policyholders still face uncertainty. [5]
Watch out for budget policies
There is, however, an important exception.
Dijklander explicitly warns that it has no contract for several ultra-budget policies, including select plans from IAK, Aevitae and multiple Zilveren Kruis “Basis Budget” / internet budget policies. Patients with those policies may have to pay a substantial part of their hospital bill themselves if they choose Dijklander. [6]
This is consistent with how budget policies work nationwide:
they keep premiums low by contracting with a very limited network of hospitals, and treatment outside that network is often only partially reimbursed.
Why these 2026 contracts matter right now
The timing is crucial. Dutch consumers can switch health insurers until 31 January 2026, but most comparison and switching happens in December, right after new premiums are announced.
A few key points for residents of Hoorn, Purmerend and the wider West-Friesland / Zaanstreek-Waterland region:
- Continuity of care
Dijklander is the main general hospital for large parts of West-Friesland and Waterland. Securing contracts with major insurers like CZ and Zilveren Kruis reduces the risk of patients having to travel further or switch hospitals for routine care. - Choice between price and freedom
With more contracts in place, people who prefer Dijklander can choose broader natura or restitution policies and still shop around for price — rather than feeling locked into a specific insurer to keep their usual hospital. - National policy pressure
The Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) requires providers to publish their list of contracted insurers from 12 November onward so consumers can make informed choices. [7]
Dijklander’s public overview and the NHD article are part of that transparency push.
What you should do as a patient
If you live in West-Friesland or Purmerend and expect to use Dijklander in 2026, it’s wise to:
- Check your insurer’s hospital list for 2026
Look up Dijklander in your insurer’s online “zorgzoeker” or “zorgvinder”. - Check your policy type
If you have a budget policy, verify whether Dijklander is in the contracted network — Dijklander lists several budget policies with no contract. [8] - Use comparison platforms with care
Sites like Zorgkiezer show the latest stand of negotiations, but note their last update date (for example, mid‑November). A contract can be signed after that. - When in doubt, call your insurer
Both Dijklander and regulators advise patients to contact their insurer directly with questions about reimbursement and waiting times. [9]
2. A Historic Split in the Christelijk Gereformeerde Kerken
While hospital boards and insurers bargain over contracts and volumes, a much more existential negotiation has broken down elsewhere in Dutch society.
Over the past weekend, dozens of conservative congregations within the Christelijk Gereformeerde Kerken (CGK) agreed to organise themselves in a separate national structure, effectively splitting from the rest of the denomination. [10]
Public broadcasters and national newspapers describe the development as a “historic” church split, the first within the CGK since its formation in 1892. [11]
What is the CGK — and how big is this?
The Christelijk Gereformeerde Kerken form an orthodox Protestant denomination with around 180–181 local congregations and roughly 66,000–70,000 members, making it a relatively small but influential part of the Dutch Bible belt. [12]
For decades, the CGK had a reputation as a cohesive, relatively harmonious church family, especially compared with other Reformed groups that experienced multiple splits in the 20th century. That reputation is now under heavy strain.
The issues behind the schism: women and LGBTQ+ inclusion
The immediate cause of the split is deep disagreement over two sensitive topics:
- Women in church office
Should women be allowed to serve as elders or pastors (dominees)? - LGBTQ+ church members
How should congregations deal with same-sex relationships and LGBTQ+ believers who want full participation in congregational life?
Earlier CGK synods have explicitly labelled same‑sex relationships as incompatible with the church’s reading of the Bible and ruled out women in the ministry. [13]
However, several large and influential congregations — notably in Zwolle — have in practice taken a more open line:
- Allowing openly gay members in relationships to take part in Holy Communion.
- Advocating space for women in leadership roles, or actively working with churches that already ordain women. [14]
For conservative congregations, this is not a minor difference but a fundamental breach of church law and doctrine. For more progressive churches, strict exclusion is experienced as unjust and pastorally harmful.
From slow-motion crisis to open split
This weekend’s events did not come out of nowhere. Over the past few years, the CGK has been in what observers call a “slow-motion church crisis”:
- A divisive national synod in 2024–2025 struggled with the future of the church and couldn’t agree on a sustainable way forward. [15]
- According to analyses in Christian media, the synod eventually closed without appointing a new one, effectively leaving local congregations to “find their own way” through the crisis. [16]
- Regional bodies such as the classis Zwolle (a regional church assembly) became paralysed; some congregations refused to meet or cooperate with others they saw as disobedient or too strict. [17]
Over the weekend, things moved from crisis to rupture:
- Around seventy conservative congregations gathered, among other places in Veenendaal, to decide on setting up their own national decision-making structure (a separate synod) besides the existing CGK structure. [18]
- Public broadcaster NOS reports that from a church-law perspective, such a re‑organisation is effectively a schism: creating a parallel national body amounts to forming a new denomination, even if participants insist they still want to “hold on to each other”. [19]
Theologians and church-law experts interviewed in Dutch media stress that two completely different visions of what a church is now face each other:
- One side says that ignoring national decisions on doctrine and ethics means the church federation has effectively broken apart.
- The other side insists that only outright false teaching should justify separation and wants to continue in a more flexible, “conversation-driven” church model. [20]
Zwolle’s central role: a local church with national impact
Regional coverage in Zwolle and national outlets highlight how CGK Zwolle, with roughly 5,000 members and multiple pastors, has become a symbol of the more open wing of the church. [21]
For years, Zwolle has:
- Advocated pastoral space for LGBTQ+ members.
- Pushed for a more open conversation about the role of women in leadership.
Conservative congregations see this as emblematic of a broader drift away from agreed church rules, and articles describing the current split say explicitly that Zwolle’s “free” course is a major reason the conservative wing is walking away. [22]
“This can tear families apart”
One of the most unsettling aspects of any church split is its impact at home.
The Theoloog des Vaderlands, who is also a CGK pastor, warns in NOS coverage that splits like this often run straight through families and marriages. [23]
You can easily imagine the scenarios:
- Parents and adult children choosing different congregations.
- One partner wanting to stay in the existing CGK, the other moving to the new conservative network.
- Longstanding friendships in local congregations strained or broken as people are forced to “choose a side”.
For many “middle” congregations — local churches that may not have women in office themselves but also don’t want to break with those that do — the situation is particularly acute. Church-law analyses in the Reformatorisch Dagblad note that these middling congregations are increasingly forced into a binary choice: either link up with the new conservative structures or remain connected with the more open churches. [24]
That choice isn’t only emotional and theological; it also has practical consequences:
- Smaller congregations that lose a chunk of members may struggle to afford a full‑time pastor or maintain their building. [25]
- Important decisions about new pastors, retirements and shared ministries become complicated when regional assemblies no longer function smoothly.
What happens next?
As of early December 2025, several things seem likely, based on reporting and expert commentary:
- The conservative congregations will continue building their own national structures, possibly moving toward a formally separate denomination that claims to be the true continuation of the CGK. [26]
- The remaining congregations will need to redefine the rules of their cooperation, especially on how much diversity is acceptable on issues of gender and sexuality.
- Legal and property questions (who owns buildings, what happens to funds, how to register the “real” CGK) may follow, though Dutch church history shows these conflicts can sometimes be settled pragmatically.
For ordinary church members, the immediate reality is simpler and more painful:
over the coming months, many will have to decide where they belong, whom they worship with, and how to handle disagreement inside their own families.
3. Two Snapshots of a Changing Netherlands
Taken together, these two stories — Dijklander’s 2026 contracts and the CGK schism — mirror wider trends in Dutch society on 2 December 2025:
- In healthcare, insurers and hospitals are under pressure to keep care affordable and accessible. Complex negotiations and public transparency rules ultimately aim to give patients security and choice, as the Dijklander case illustrates. [27]
- In the religious sphere, values and identity debates about gender and sexuality have pushed a once‑stable denomination to a breaking point. The historic CGK split shows how these debates don’t remain abstract but reshape institutions, communities and families. [28]
For residents of West-Friesland and Purmerend, the most practical task today is clear:
Check your 2026 health insurance and confirm how Dijklander is covered.
For members of the Christelijk Gereformeerde Kerken, the task is more existential:
Discern where you stand in a church that is no longer able to keep all its differences under one roof.
References
1. www.dijklander.nl, 2. www.dijklander.nl, 3. www.zorgkiezer.nl, 4. www.zorgkiezer.nl, 5. www.dijklander.nl, 6. www.dijklander.nl, 7. lvvp.info, 8. www.dijklander.nl, 9. www.dijklander.nl, 10. nos.nl, 11. nos.nl, 12. nos.nl, 13. nos.nl, 14. cvandaag.nl, 15. www.rd.nl, 16. www.trouw.nl, 17. cvandaag.nl, 18. nos.nl, 19. nos.nl, 20. www.rd.nl, 21. www.klaasvanderkamp.nl, 22. www.destentor.nl, 23. nos.nl, 24. www.rd.nl, 25. nos.nl, 26. www.trouw.nl, 27. www.dijklander.nl, 28. nos.nl
