PressSplit
The health insurance companies are complaining about financial hardship. The traffic light system is being called into action. (Image illustration). © Susann Prautsch/dpa
With an initiative in the summer, the umbrella association of BKK health insurance funds wants to inform the public about the financial misery of the statutory health insurance funds.
Berlin – Statutory health insurance companies have been complaining about increasing pressure for years. While expenses continue to rise – and there is no turnaround in sight as the population ages – revenues can no longer keep up. In 2023, the statutory health insurance companies’ deficit was 1.9 billion euros. As the Ministry of Health announced in the spring, all types of health insurance companies (company funds, guild funds, local health insurance companies, etc.) are now in the red. For this reason, health insurance companies are forced to increase their contribution rates.
According to the BKK umbrella association, the trend towards ever-increasing contributions will continue unabated if the federal government does not take corrective action. new information campaignwhich will be launched on Tuesday (30 July), she wants to inform the population about the financial plight of the statutory health insurance funds – and explain which measures the traffic light coalition could take to counteract this.
Health insurance companies have to keep increasing contributions
“This constant bleeding of the insured community must finally stop, and the state must fulfill its obligations,” says the chairwoman of the BKK umbrella association, Anne-Kathrin Klemm, at the launch of the new campaign, which will run with the hashtag #What’sMissingYouPayFor. “The financial plight of the statutory health insurance system affects almost 90 percent of the population. And the situation is getting worse,” says Klemm.
In Germany, the general contribution rate for all statutory health insurance companies will be 14.6 percent in 2024. In addition, there is an additional contribution that each statutory health insurance company sets individually. On average, this currently amounts to 1.7 percent. On average, people with statutory insurance pay 16.3 percent of their gross salary for health insurance. Of the 68 statutory health insurance companies, 46 have been forced to increase their contribution rate this year. This is reported by Stiftung WarentestAccordingly, 23 funds have kept the contribution rate stable, while three funds have reduced the rate.
According to calculations by the health insurance companies, contributions will have to rise again after this year. A study presented by the DAK at the end of April calculated that without stabilization measures, health insurance contributions would have to rise to up to 20.6 percent by 2035. In addition, there are rising contributions for pension insurance (up to 22.3 percent in 2035) and higher care contributions (4.7 percent by 2035). According to the study, this will result in a total social insurance contribution rate of 51.2 percent over the next ten years.
Traffic light coalition to pay back money to health insurance companies for citizens’ allowance recipients
“For every percentage point by which the contribution rate increases, employers in this country currently have to pay around 15 cents more per hour worked to the employee’s health insurance fund. With around 62 billion hours worked in Germany in 2023, that adds up to a lot: a total of around 9.3 billion euros. This is another piece of the puzzle as to why the competitiveness of the German economy is coming under increasing pressure compared to other major export nations,” explains Klemm in the new press release. There are ways and means of improving the finances of the statutory health insurance system in the short term.
According to the wishes of the health insurance companies, the traffic light government is to close the citizen’s allowance gap. This is because anyone who receives citizen’s allowance remains insured with their current health insurance company – the state pays the costs. In return, a flat rate is transferred to the health insurance companies for each citizen’s allowance recipient. However, according to the health insurance companies, this flat rate contribution has been below the actual costs that the insurance companies have to bear since 2016. According to calculations by the funds, more than nine billion euros are missing every yearwhich the state actually owes to the statutory health insurance.
“The financial resources promised in the coalition agreement for citizens’ allowance recipients must finally be made available. This would relieve the contributors of around 9 billion euros in one fell swoop. That is a whopping 0.5 contribution points,” explains BKK board member Klemm.
Health insurance companies attack Karl Lauterbach’s hospital reform
Klemm also criticizes, as he has done many times before, the planned hospital reform by Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD). In order to put the country’s hospitals on a more solid financial footing, a transformation fund of 50 billion euros is to be set up over ten years. Half of this fund is to be financed by the states, but half by the statutory health insurance companies – which in turn have already announced that they will increase contributions further if they have to bear these costs. The question has also been raised as to whether this form of financing is even constitutional, since private insurers do not contribute to the costs – but privately insured people would benefit from the reform just as much as those with statutory insurance.
According to the health insurance companies, the federal government should cover their half of the hospital reform costs. However, this again goes to the heart of the problem: the tight budget situation. After a long struggle, the traffic light coalition has managed to put a draft budget for 2025 in place. However, it is still missing at least eight billion euros, which the government wants to obtain using tricks. The constitutionality of this still has to be examined. It is therefore unlikely that the health insurance companies’ demands will be heard by the traffic light coalition.
