Lower PKV commissions planned

In the future, lower commissions for private health insurance

01/11/2011

The commission payments in the mediation of new private health insurance (PKV) have taken in recent years to a degree that has led to extremely questionable to greedy behavior of the insurance intermediary. According to the will of the Federal Government this is now over.

In order to put an end to the commission excesses, the Bundestag has adopted new guidelines for brokering full insurance policies. Thus, the maximum allowable commissions were limited and the cancellation liability extended to a longer period. The Association of Private Health Insurance (PKV) welcomed the new regulations of the Bundestag and the PKV-Verbanddirektor Dr. med. Volker Leienbach was cautiously optimistic that the measures will bear fruit in practice.

Commission payments in private health insurance with unpleasant side effects
The commission payments for the conclusion of a contract in private health insurance have long been clearly in the criticism. The fact that up to 18 monthly contributions of the insured persons were paid to the mediators with new conclusion of a contract, had criticized not only the policy but also the Federal association of the insurance advisors already at the beginning of the yearly as intolerable. Because the costs, which result from the commissions, end up with the insured. In addition, the highest commissions were often paid for the worst contracts, which led to massive distortions in the advice, said the President of the Association of Insurance Advisors, Stefan Albers, in February. Also some representatives had tried to move the customers several times to a change of insurance - always after expiration of the cancellation liability period - in order to collect more often commission, so the criticism of the previous system. While competition between private health insurers is quite intentional, paying for up to 18 monthly contributions as commissions has created extremely unpleasant side effects.

New rules should prevent exaggerations in the future in the interests of the insured
Now the policy has decided to act and the new regulation of the commission system decided upon launching a PKV contract. Not only will the maximum allowable commissions be limited to nine monthly premiums from April 1, 2012, but the cancellation liability has been extended from today's two years to five years. If insured persons change insurance again before expiry of the cancellation liability, the intermediaries must pay back part of the commission received. With the new regulations should „exaggerations“ be avoided in the future, „However, without affecting the personal advice and care of the insured by the intermediaries“, emphasized the PKV director of the association Volker Leienbach. However, the adopted changes must now prove themselves in practice, so Leienbach on. Both the policy and the Association of private health insurance hope that the excessive commission excesses are now a thing of the past. As the CDU member of parliament Klaus-Peter Flosbach emphasized in the context of the parliamentary debate, the new regulation of the commission system with the private health insurance companies took place in close coordination with the economy. Flosbach was optimistic about this important step „to achieve a clean market for private health insurance brokerage.“ The insurance industry is grateful that the policy „intervened in the market and eliminated this abuse“ has explained the CDU politician.

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Picture: Ronny Richert