Health check: 7 types and what each one does and does not measure

A health check in the Netherlands is not one fixed test, but an umbrella term for seven quite different examinations. They range from a free online questionnaire from your insurer to full lab analysis of your blood. What you actually learn differs sharply per type.

Here is what strikes us about this topic. Almost every provider explains neatly why its own check is worthwhile. Almost nobody puts the seven types side by side.

So that is what we have done here.

RIVM, the Dutch national institute for public health, groups health tests into similar categories, from questionnaires and apps to body material analysis and scans. RIVM states explicitly that it gives no advice on whether you should take such a test. That choice stays yours.

The 7 types of health check in one table

The seven differ mainly on one point: do they measure something on your body, or do they ask you? A questionnaire estimates risk from your answers. A blood test measures values in a laboratory. In between sits a range of hybrids.

1. The online questionnaire from your insurer

This is the best known free option. Insurers such as Menzis, CZ and Zilveren Kruis offer an online check where you answer questions on smoking, exercise, sleep and stress. You get a risk profile back, not measured values.

Its strength is the low barrier. It costs nothing and takes about ten minutes.

The limitation is just as clear. A questionnaire can only process what you already know or notice. An abnormal blood value without symptoms falls outside it by definition.

2. The personal health check

This option combines a detailed questionnaire with a limited blood or urine analysis. Some Dutch insurance policies reimburse it fully or partly. You receive a report with lifestyle guidance.

The blood portion is usually a basic profile. Think glucose and cholesterol, not a broad set of hormones or vitamins.

Check which part your policy covers before you start. That saves surprises afterwards.

3. The pharmacy finger-prick check

Many Dutch pharmacies measure your blood pressure and prick your finger for glucose and cholesterol. You get a result and a short conversation within fifteen minutes. For a first impression of your cardiovascular profile that may be enough.

A finger-prick yields a small amount of blood. That limits how many values can be measured from it.

Thyroid, iron, liver and kidneys are not included.

4. The workplace preventive medical examination

A preventive medical examination, usually shortened to PMO, is offered by your employer through the occupational health service. Its content depends on your role and the risks in your work. For desk work it often covers posture and workload, for physical work hearing or lung function.

Sometimes blood testing is included, sometimes not at all.

One important detail: your employer only sees group results, never your individual outcome. Dutch law arranges it that way.

5. The check-up with your GP

Your GP runs targeted tests when there is a reason. Think symptoms, medication use or a condition in the family. The GP then picks the values that fit that question, and the cost usually falls under basic insurance.

Without a reason there is generally no blood test. That is not reluctance, it is the starting point of Dutch general practice: testing follows a question.

Thuisarts.nl notes that testing without symptoms has downsides and advises thinking it over carefully. A result just outside the reference range can cause worry and follow-up testing when nothing is actually wrong.

6. The total body scan

In a total body scan a clinic images your organs and structures, usually with MRI or CT. It shows things that stay invisible in blood, such as a structural abnormality in an organ. The price sits well above the other six types.

A scan measures no chemistry. Your cholesterol, thyroid values and blood sugar do not come out of it.

The Thuisarts.nl point about incidental findings applies here too. A scan regularly spots something small that later turns out to be harmless.

We meet this combination often: someone has had an expensive scan and still knows nothing about their cholesterol or thyroid. Those are two different questions.

7. A blood test without a referral

With this option you have venous blood drawn at a collection site. A laboratory then analyses it. Because it is a tube of blood and not a drop, the profile can be broader: thyroid, iron, liver, kidneys, vitamins and hormones. You need no referral for it.

At VitalCheck a BIG-registered doctor reviews every result and you receive a personal report. Our basic health checkup covers the commonly requested values, and the extended health checkup goes further.

What a blood test does not do: it replaces neither physical examination nor imaging. We wrote earlier about where that boundary sits in MOT for your body.

What does a health check cost?

Prices run from nothing to well over a thousand euros. An insurer questionnaire is free, a pharmacy check usually costs a few tens of euros, and a blood test without referral starts around eighty euros. A total body scan sits in a different category entirely.

A check without medical indication generally falls outside Dutch basic insurance. Some supplementary policies reimburse part of it, so it is worth checking yours.

We think price is the least useful yardstick here. A free questionnaire that does not answer your question costs more than it looks.

Our comparison of nine providers lists current prices side by side.

Which health check suits you?

That depends on your question, not on the price. If you want to know whether your lifestyle carries risk, a questionnaire is a logical starting point. If you want measured values, you need body material, and half the options drop away.

If you have symptoms, your GP is the right address. They can test in a targeted way and have your history at hand.

Take two people of 42. Both tired for months, both noticing nothing else. One has a ferritin of 15 micrograms per litre, the other 95.

A questionnaire cannot see that difference. It gets the same answer back twice: tired.

Values such as ferritin, TSH and vitamin B12 may add context here. In our experience it is exactly this kind of distinction that moves people forward, more than a risk score does. Those values sit in the broader selection of blood tests.

What no health check measures

None of the seven types delivers a verdict on your health as a whole. They produce separate data points at one moment in time. A value inside the reference range does not rule out that something is going on, and a value outside it often means nothing is wrong.

Something else no check measures: how your values move over time. A first measurement is mostly a starting point.

What I take away after putting these seven side by side: the question is not which check is best, but what you want to know. Answer that first and the choice usually makes itself. Always discuss a result that worries you with your GP, who can place it in the context of your situation.

References

• RIVM, Gezondheidstesten, rivm.nl (accessed August 2026)
• Thuisarts.nl, Gezondheids-test, preventief onderzoek, total bodyscan (accessed August 2026)
• Gezondheidsraad, advisory reports on health checks and preventive health screening

Every blood test result includes a professional assessment from a BIG-registered doctor. For treatment decisions, discuss your results with your GP.