Health insurance companies are going down

The statutory health insurance companies spend more again than they take

06/20/2014

The health insurance companies give back more money than they take. In the first quarter of 2014, the statutory health insurance had to finance about 270 million euros more than they earned. According to the ministry, the payouts of premiums are to blame. Financial reserves have also shrunk significantly. These fell by 16.8 billion euros compared to the previous year.

The statutory health insurance funds paid premiums of EUR 236 million to their insured persons in the first quarter of 2014. In addition, insured persons received additional voluntary statutory benefits such as naturopathy or osteopathy amounting to 55 million euros. Thus, individual funds have begun to let their insured persons participate in the high financial reserves of 16.8 billion euros. Without these special factors, there would be no expenditure surplus for statutory health insurance () in the first quarter of 2014, but even an excess of revenue. This is shown by the provisional financial results of the health insurances of the 1st quarter of 2014. The health insurance companies will again receive sufficient funds from the health fund for 2014 to cover their expenditure 100 percent.

The Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe (CDU) warned therefore: „The funds are well advised to use their high financial reserves and their new contribution options in the interests of the insured. "

For each insured, there was an increase in expenditure of 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2014. The benefit expenditure increased by 5.5 percent per insured; the administrative costs by approx. 2.1 percent. It should be noted in the first quarter that the expenditure in many areas of performance are largely based on estimates, as accounting data are often not yet available.

In the first three months of the year, above-average increases in pharmaceuticals and aids as well as cash-table comparisons contributed to significantly higher rates of change among the guarantor health insurance funds.

Contributions decline, additional contributions rise
Due to the Union / SPD planned health care reform, the insured's contribution rate will fall from 15.5% to 14.6% in 2015. The health insurance companies should be allowed to take additional contributions. These are based on the insured person's income. This should reduce the number of funds and strengthen competition.

Developments in the individual service areas
In the months from January to March 2014, the drug expendituresThe health insurance companies increased by 8.4 percent after three years with very moderate growth rates. This increase is likely to be due in large part to the expiry of the three-year, increased manufacturer discount on patented medicines of 16%. At the beginning of the year, however, the Federal Government has already implemented significant expenditure-limiting regulations. The price moratorium was seamlessly extended until the end of 2017. Effective April 1, 2014, the existing manufacturer discount was raised from 6 percent to 7 percent. The lower 5.8 percent growth reported by the latest monthly data from pharmacy computer centers for drug sales in April may also be related to this scheme.