Two of the four largest health insurers have announced the new premium for the basic insurance. At CZ, the premium will increase by 8.65 euros next year to 129.60 euros per month. At VGZ, the premium comes to 124.45 euros per month, 4.50 euros more than this year.
Both premiums are therefore above the government’s forecast. That came on Budget Day with the expectation that the health insurance premium would rise on average by 5 euros and amount to 123 euros.
Health insurers must publish the new premiums no later than today. Menzis and Zilveren Kruis will also publish their premiums during the day. The smaller insurer DSW already announced the health insurance premium in September; at EUR 124.50, it was also higher than the government’s forecast.
Little corona impact
The premium increase is the result of a combination of higher drug prices, rising wages in health care and an aging population. The latter results in more people with chronic diseases, for example. This combination has also led to rising healthcare costs in recent years.
“In the spring there was the fear that corona care could increase the health insurance premium by another 150 euros”, says Mirjam Prins, health insurance expert of comparison website Independer. But it has long been clear that this fear turned out to be unfounded.
DSW already indicated in September that the corona pandemic will not lead to a higher premium. CZ now says that too. “The corona virus has resulted in a lot of extra healthcare costs. On the other hand, regular healthcare has been temporarily halted. On balance, the effect of the corona virus on the increase in healthcare premiums is limited.”
Big differences
“I have heard from the insurance world that this year they have more difficulty in determining the amount of the premium”, says Prins. “That could cause the differences between health insurers to widen, while you actually get the same thing with all of them: basic insurance.”
The first signs of this are already becoming clear. The difference between the CZ and VGZ basic insurance policies is already more than 5 euros per month. To curb the price increases to some extent, both insurers have also drawn on their reserves. At VGZ this cost 150 million euros, at CZ more than 100 million euros.
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