Cash patients pay 380 euros in addition

On average, cash patients spend around € 380 per year on benefits

13/09/2012

According to a survey study, statutory health insurance companies also spend about 380 euros on health care because the health insurance companies do not cover certain services such as osteopathy, IGEL services at the doctor's, additional payments in the pharmacy or additional services in the clinic. Many cash-desk patients, however, can not afford certain health services, so some treatments are either deferred or left altogether.

Insured persons of the statutory health insurance companies spend on average around 380 euros in addition to their cash contributions at the doctor, in the pharmacy or in the hospital. According to the representative survey of the polling institute „TNS Infratest“ On behalf of the Continentale insurance, women spend an additional 440 euros per year, slightly more than men with around 300 euros for services that are not included in the catalog of benefits of the statutory health insurance. About one in three said they had already postponed therapies, additional diagnostic options or vaccinations because of the extra cost.

Most commonly, the additional costs were the practice fees that are due each quarter, co-payments for medicines in the pharmacy, medical diagnoses or treatments, physiotherapy or manual procedures such as massages. Expressly „There were no treatments for orthodontists and vision aids such as glasses“, as a spokesman for private health insurance Continentale said. In addition, the respondents' information is a simple estimate.

Low earners can not afford additional services
Especially groups of people such as low-income earners and Hartz IV recipients stated that they had renounced health care offers for financial reasons. About 80 percent of the participants took the view that the German health care system „too expensive“. In the evaluation of the last question, the answers were evaluated by about 1100 insured persons of the health insurance companies and 167 private patients.

Despite the additional expenditure and contribution development, the absolute majority (90 percent) consider the current primary health care system to be positive. 82 percent find medical therapies effective. However, four out of five (78 percent) said they did „worried that they could no longer benefit from medical advances in the future“.

A majority of respondents also believe that the dissolution of the dual health insurance system in favor of joint citizens' insurance could eliminate all differences between rich and poor. Only 37 percent believe that citizens would no longer be able to afford better care.“ On the other hand, be „86 percent of the population think that the German health service is one of the most efficient in the world“.

Overall, the study aims to improve the image of private health insurance. The core messages of the study are that the majority of insured persons are more satisfied with the private sector and that insured persons with mixed feelings look to the future. So the participants approve „Benefits of PKV versus the GKV on the benefit side too“. However, a recent study by the health insurance companies came to the conclusion that numerous private health plans offer even less benefits than the statutory health insurance. (Sb)

Read about:
PKV study reveals severe performance weaknesses
PKV tariffs have massive performance gaps
PKV introductory rates often offer less than the GKV
Bad image for private health insurance

Picture: Ronny Richert