A structural risk
The Slow Leak
The funds that pay for Sint Maarten’s healthcare and pensions have run a deficit for years. The savings that cushion them fall from Cg 0.0M to Cg 0.0M by 2029 — down 0% in six years, and draining faster each year.
2029 · Cg 178.3M left · draining Cg 28.8M/yr
In the red every year
The health and social funds (ZV/OV/FZOG/AVBZ + OZR) spent more than they took in every year from 2020 to 2023 — an average deficit of about Cg 0M a year.
Each year’s shortfall eats into the reserves that pay for tomorrow’s claims. The trend hasn’t reversed — 2023’s deficit was still Cg 47.3M.
- 2020Cg −43.4M
- 2021Cg −56.1M
- 2022Cg −61.9M
- 2023Cg −47.3M
An ageing island
More people draw on pensions and care each year. The share of the population aged 65 and over more than doubled in just over a decade — pushing costs up as the working-age base that funds them shrinks.
Without either higher contributions, wider revenue, or lower payouts, the arithmetic points in one direction: reserves keep falling.
Source · Explanatory Notes to the 2026 National Budget, §3.2.10 (p.19): the ZV/OV/FZOG/AVBZ + OZR income statement and the healthcare/social-fund reserve projection, with the population-by-age table. Reserve figures are the government’s own multi-year projection; the “runs dry within a decade” note extends that trend and is illustrative.