BKK for health professionals before the end?

Imminent closure of the BKK for health professionals

03.08.2011

After speculating in the past months again and again about a possible bankruptcy of the BKK for health professionals, the health insurance seems currently actually heading for a closure, should not find in the last second, a merger partner.

Due to the continuing loss of membership, the financial difficulties of the BKK for health professionals have become even more severe. Should the ailing health insurance company not soon find a fusion partner, the closure threatens, reports the „Rheinische Post“. A spokesman for the BKK für Heilberufe had told the newspaper that preparations for precautionary redundancies are already under way from September.

Precautionary redundancies from September
Already last year, initial speculation about significant financial difficulties at the BKK for health professionals were loud. The rescue seemed to be the proposed merger with the German Employees Health Insurance (DAK), but the plans were bursting shortly before the agreement and the financial problems of the BKK for health professionals have become more acute since then. There have been several speculations in the media about a possible closure of the BKK for health professionals this year, should no adequate merger partner be found. However, this has not been achieved so far, so that the ailing health insurance now precautionary will pronounce operational layoffs in September, a BKK spokesman told the „Rheinische Post“. According to the daily, City BKK has to divest about 40 percent of its 240 employees. However, there is still hope for a possible merger, which could eventually have to dismiss fewer employees than previously provided.

BKK für Heilberufe: Looking for merger partners
In view of the continuing loss of membership and the massive financial difficulties of the BKK for health professions, the Federal Insurance Office (BVA) has called on the company health insurance fund to seek a merger partner promptly in order to avoid other reorganization measures or even the closure of the health insurance fund. Already in May reports the „Financial Times Germany“ from a letter from the Advisory Council of the BKK for Health Professions to the Management Boards of the other company health insurance funds, from which it appears that the BKK urgently looks for potential merger partners among the other company health insurance funds in order to avert the impending insolvency. So far, however, no other health insurance found a merger and given the financial burden that would be associated with a takeover of the BKK for health professionals, the restraint seems quite understandable. However, the Ulrich Rosendahl, spokesman for the BKK for health professionals, compared to the „Financial Times Germany“ Also pointed out that a takeover for the other company health insurance would be much cheaper than a possible bankruptcy of the BKK for health professionals.

Member loss causes financial difficulties of the health insurance
The financial problems of the BKK für Heilberufe have been steadily worsening since 2010, mainly due to the continuing loss of members. The health insurance company lost more than half of its insured persons in the past year and currently has only about 85,000 members, whereas at peak times around 600,000 people were insured in the BKK for health professionals. But the BKK für Heilberufe is by no means an isolated case with its difficulties, as the recent bankruptcy of City BKK has shown in a worrying way. In the context of the past health care reforms, the competitive pressure among the statutory health insurance funds among themselves as well as between the statutory and private health insurance has increased significantly, as a result of which some statutory insurance companies are struggling with considerable difficulties. Added to this is the demographic change, which has led to steadily rising costs in the service sector, as the cost of treatment per patient is steadily increasing in an aging society.

Financial difficulties in the GKV not an isolated case
Unlike in the case of private health insurance (PKV), in statutory health insurance (SHI) the contributions are not adjusted to the age or health status of the insured, but are based solely on the income. This approach, which is fundamentally positive in the sense of a solidarity-based healthcare system, can bring considerable disadvantages, especially in competition with private health insurance, if young, healthy, well-earning insureds tend to leave the system of statutory health insurance in the direction of private health insurance and predominantly old, health-afflicted, lesser-earning members stay behind. As a result, the expenditure situation of the affected statutory health insurance fund can become so severe that considerable financial difficulties seem inevitable. If membership losses persist, there will be additional staffing problems, as this can not usually be reduced as quickly as possible. Ultimately, the resulting difficulties can become so extreme that, at the end of the process, as in the case of City BKK, bankruptcy occurs. (Fp)

Read about BKK Health Professions:
BKK für Heilberufe: merger or insolvency?
BKK for health professions threatens bankruptcy
Member loss at the health insurance companies

Image: Claudia Hautumm