Insurers’ single-supplier policy fuels medicine shortages for 3.5 million

The Consumentenbond warned on Thursday that insurers' practice of selecting only one cheap supplier per drug is exacerbating medicine shortages in the Netherlands and leaving patients to bear the cost.

The Consumentenbond wants consumers to no longer be the victims of health insurers’ purchasing policies on medicines.

When an insurer’s preferred medicine is out of stock, patients are often forced to pay extra out of pocket or use their deductible for an alternative brand. This issue hit nearly one in three medicine users—about 3.5 million people—in 2025, according to the Royal Dutch Pharmacists Association KNMP.

Hundreds of consumers described their experiences in Consumentenbond research. Some suffered health problems because alternative brands worked differently, had different dosages, or were unavailable.

The consumer group and pharmacists’ organization LEF say the root cause is insurers’ single-supplier preference policy combined with very low prices. This trend is driving manufacturers away from the Dutch market and making shortages more common and difficult to resolve.

Sandra Molenaar, director of the Consumentenbond, said patients must get their medicines without extra financial barriers.
“A patient who is dependent on medicines must be able to get them on time, safely, and without extra financial barriers,” Molenaar told De Telegraaf. “When a preferred medicine is not available, there must be a suitable other brand available that health insurers fully reimburse.”

She urged insurers to contract with five suppliers or brands per medicine, rather than just one. The Consumentenbond expects these changes to solve more than half of the shortages that occur at pharmacy counters.

Molenaar noted that medicine shortages have topped the Consumentenbond’s annual consumer survey for two years in a row.
“We ask consumers every year where we as the Consumentenbond should pay the most attention, and for 2 years now, medicine shortages have been at the top,” she said. “That emphasizes how impactful a medicine shortage is for the 3.5 to 4 million people who deal with it annually. High time that the insurers take action and not pass the ball to someone else again.”