“Contributing Tsunami” until 2023: The additional costs of legal health insurance continue to rise – the economy

More than a quarter of the 73 million people who have legal health insurance will have to make greater contributions to their health insurance this year. This is according to “Weld am Zondak” based on a list of contributions published by the National Association of Statistic Health Insurance Funds (GKV) earlier this year. Accordingly, out of 97 legal health insurances, 19 have increased the additional contribution.

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These include nine of the eleven public local health insurance funds (AOK). Of these nine alone, nearly 21 million are insured. Nine, the smallest company Health Insurance Funds (BKK) cut contributions at the beginning of the year. The most expensive of all legal health insurances by 2022 is BKK24 nationwide, which is 17.1 percent, and the cheapest is BMW BKK with 14.9 percent.

Health insurance companies now see the new federal government as an obligation. “If politicians do not actively oppose this, there will be a contributing tsunami in 2023,” said Andreas Strom, CEO of DAK-Gesundheit, the third largest fund. Without an additional 14 billion euros in federal subsidies, he estimates, contributions would not have averaged just 0.1 percentage points, and would have risen by one percentage point by 2022.

“We now urgently need a relentless recession of funds for legal health and long-term care insurance until 2025,” said DAK representative Storm. This is an urgent task for the new central government. “Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner must answer the question of how GKV funding will continue in the budget he presented in early March.” Only then can contribution rates be prevented from rising sharply in the coming years.

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Crisis can be avoided only through special government payments

“GKV’s financial outlook for legal health insurance has faded recently,” said Carola Rayman, AOK-Bundesverband, the newspaper’s new chairwoman. The billion holes that will form in 2021 and 2022 will only be filled through the use of special government grants and cash reserves.

In the case of AOKs, a new distribution key for allocations from the health fund was largely at their expense. All of this necessitated contribution adjustments. “And by 2023, there are signs of a similar GKV shortage again,” Raymond said.

The general contribution rate for all health insurance companies is 14.6 percent of total revenue, with each health insurance company contributing an additional contribution of its own. Both parts of the contribution are paid by half employer and half employee. If the additional contribution is increased, the insured has the exclusive right to dismiss. (KNA, AFP)