Health insurance companies disadvantage the elderly and the sick

Federal Insurance Office: Some health insurance companies disadvantage chronically ill and old

08/28/2013

The legislator exists: The health insurance companies must treat all insured equally. But some funds seem to pay little attention to this legal requirement, as a report from the Federal Insurance Office (BVA) shows. Not infrequently, chronically ill or elderly people are massively disadvantaged by the statutory health insurance. „Politics made this unequal treatment possible“, critics say.

Elderly and permanently ill people are often discriminated against by the statutory health insurance companies. This is a result of the current activity report of the BVA. Already in the advertising of members insured persons are disadvantaged with a high cost factor. In some cases even health insurances tried to persuade retirees or sick people from the cash register with tricks to leave. According to the report, numerous members of the treasury were virtually forced out.

Cash desks requested to be terminated by phone
According to the regulator, attempts have even been made to force people with disabilities and long-term illnesses out of the box by phone. These funds got a clear reprimand. "The presented procedure violates fundamental principles of the social code and does not do justice to the responsibility of the public health insurance companies even with the medical care of handicapped and chronically ill humans", complained the authors of the report.

Significant criticism, the cash must also be pleased because of the recruitment practices. Because in the run-up to certain insured groups according to the system „risk selection“ screened. Especially for this purpose, a number of health insurance companies have concluded agreements with the distributors that they are superficially potential new customers, who have a good to very good income and are on average healthy. "Often the health insurance companies do not pay their sales premiums for promoting low-income or sick insured or reimburse premiums if the new members cause higher medical expenses than expected," the agency writes in its report. It would be obvious that the health insurance companies concerned violated the prohibition of discrimination and the statutory solidarity principle. This requires the health insurance companies, in contrast to the private insurance, to treat all members the same. Pre-existing conditions, disabilities, age or gender should not play a role in the admission of a health insurance. Otherwise, many people would no longer find health insurance because they considered „too risky“ would apply.

After announcement criticized the Federal Minister of Health Daniel Bahr the results. Bahr said about a spokesman: "A risk selection at the expense of seriously ill and expensive insured persons is inadmissible." The health insurance companies must comply with the law“.

Federal government is to blame for the disaster
However, experts and consumer advocates view the problems as homemade. Rather, the policy is to blame for the current situation. The health expert Christoph Kranich of the consumer center Hamburg goes even further in an interview with the FR and said: "Blame for the risk selection are not the coffers". Because the black-yellow federal government had the cash funds almost forced to go into a competition. Among other things, the policy aims to minimize the number of funds. „The competition between them is also fought against each other with hard bandages“, said Waltraud speech, treasurer. (Sb)