Easy change to private health insurance?

Better access to private health insurance in the near future? The Federal Ministry of Health wants to shorten the three-year rule and thus burden the statutory health insurance.

(19.07.2010) According to the same reports, the Federal Ministry of Health is currently reviewing the admission requirements for Private Health Insurance (PKV). Currently, the so-called three-year period regulation applies. It means that „earners“ can only switch from statutory health insurance to private health insurance if they are consistently above the minimum income for employees for more than three years. The mandatory gross income for a change is currently at 49950 euros per year for employees subject to social security contributions. For three years, an employee must earn this sum in order to be able to switch to private health insurance.

This three-year deadline was introduced to overburden the solidarity community „wishing to switch“ to protect those who want to turn their backs on the statutory health insurances in order to be privately insured. Now that the federal government has raised the contributions of the statutory health insurance funds from 14.9 to 15.5 percent, it is now being examined whether the admission requirements for a change to private health insurance are being made easier. Beneficiaries of such a regulation would be the private health insurer at the expense of the solidary community of statutory health insurance companies. If the Federal Minister of Health Philipp Rösler (FDP) prevailed, it would lead to a rapid increase in the „wishing to switch“.

Rösler now favors the three-year period to actually reduce to one year. Other reports even claim that the Minister of Health even plans no deadline for change. According to calculations by the IGES Institute, the statutory health insurance companies are therefore threatened with an additional burden of around 750 million euros per year. In turn, this additional burden would have to pay those who remained in the GKV and for whom no easy change is possible. The health policy spokesman of the SPD Lauterbach accuses the FDP in this context, a "hard-hitting clientele policy" before. After all, this debate is actually being initiated after the contributions to the SHI have just been decided. While SHI is a statutory compulsory insurance that can take any member regardless of health status and earnings, the private can choose their insured. If the three-year rule were abolished, the private could take in new financially strong members and bring in a rich plus.

What happens then, you can calculate on three fingers. This change in the law continues the trend towards "two-class medicine". While the law works according to the principle of solidarity, the principle of profitability applies to the private sector when new members are admitted. In order to absorb the costs for the chronically ill and families, high-income young insured persons are vital for the statutory health insurance funds. But the high-income insured would change if they change the conditions for access to private health insurance, to spend a few health insurance costs. The result: the legal can offer ever fewer health services and must introduce additional contributions and contribution increases. Private health insurance, on the other hand, can reject the chronically ill or push into the basic rate.

In the next few weeks, it will be decided whether Rössler can assert his plans within the coalition. For „earners“, who are employed by social insurance, a change in the private health insurance would be a financial relief. For the statutory health insurance, the abolition of the three-year period would be a debacle. You then have to adjust to further benefit restrictions and massive increases in insured contributions. (Sb)

Also read:
Now change to private health insurance?
Health insurance: contributions are increased again?
PKV: Allianz has to pay extra contributions back
PKV Allianz increases its contributions