PKV-cheap fares before the end?

PKV low-cost fares before the end: Central health insurance sets their low-fare

31/07/2011

Off for low rates in private health insurance (PKV). Central Health Insurance takes its low fare „Ecoline“ on the 1st of August from the market. Although the health insurance company was able to win some 40,000 new customers last year with the low-priced offerings, overall the tariffs are uneconomic and do not meet the demands of the insured on private health insurance. In addition, many insured persons in the segment would not have paid their contributions, so that substantial increases in premiums were unavoidable in the low-cost tariff, the rating agency Assekurata commented on the current decision.

With the Central Health Insurance another private insurer says goodbye to the controversial low rates. After DKV announced in June that it would no longer offer its low-fare tariff as of December 1, 2011, Central Health Insurance followed the example and introduced the tariff on August 1st „Ecoline“ on. The strategy to win new customers with the help of cheap deals, hoping that these sooner or later switch to a more expensive tariff of health insurance, had failed, said Heinz Teuscher, CEO of belonging to Generali Germany Central health insurance to the „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“.

No low rates at Central Health Insurance
From the first of August, the discount rates of Central Health Insurance will no longer be offered, according to a recent statement from the health insurance company. Actually hoped the insurance of the cheap offers a significant competitive advantage and increased acquisition of new customers. But while tens of thousands of new members could actually be lured through the low-cost fares, Central Krankenversicherung evidently did not benefit from this. The strategy to lure new customers with the help of the particularly tightly calculated offers, in the hope that these would then switch to a more expensive tariff, did not work, according to the statement of the CEO of Central Health Insurance. In fact, the quota of customers who have switched from the low-fare to a higher-value tariff, is close to zero, said Heinz Teuscher. In addition, in the „Ecoline“ In particular, many customers did not pay their premiums, which resulted in significantly higher premium increases for the paying customers in the low-fare tariff than in the more expensive tariffs. According to Dietmar Meister, Chairman of the Board of Generali Deutschland, Dietmar Meister is convinced that Central Krankenversicherung will immediately discontinue its discount tariff and not wait until the end of the year, unlike DKV, which belongs to the Ergo Group. „Why wait four months, if the decision is clear?“, commented masters the immediate exit from the cheap deals.

Financial burden of lock rates
Industry experts see the immediate cessation of the low fares as a kind of emergency brake due to the cost trend in the „Ecoline“. Although a significant proportion of Central Krankenversicherung's growth in the last three years has been due to new deals on low-cost fares, it has not really improved its competitive position. On the contrary, the discount tariffs have become increasingly a burden. The expert Abdul Kadir Cebi, from the rating agency Assekurata said: „Cheap became problematic because there is a high risk that contributions will not be paid.“ In addition, the scope of service often does not meet the claim that the insured have to the private health insurance. Because the low tariffs were only possible through the exclusion of certain benefits. Thus, for example, outpatient psychotherapies, artificial insemination, rehabilitation measures, cures, non-medical treatment and outpatient transports in the low fares are often not covered. „Maybe we should have looked at this model more critically“, this is the conclusion of the CEO of Generali Deutschland. Speculation that the problems with the low tariffs could even lead to an imbalance of Central, dismissed the Central Health Insurance but energetically. „The Central has a rock solid record and is definitely in no financial difficulties“, so the opinion of the health insurance.

Others continue to rely on the model of new customer acquisition
Unlike DKV and Central Krankenversicherung, other private health insurances plan to continue their business with the low fares. A spokesman for health insurance Hanse Merkur explained, „the brokers do not chatter the customer. They know what they are doing when they buy a tariff without protection from psychotherapy.“ The Hanse Merkur sets the low fares particularly for the acquisition of new customers, but has reportedly mostly positive experiences and plans to increase the proportion of low fares even in the future. The emerging criticism of the business model of cheap offers is only due to the success of some insurance, so the position of the Hanse Merkur. „We've been growing stronger than the market for nine years, and that does not suit some“, a company spokesman told the „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“. However, the justification with regard to the Central Health Insurance and the DKV can not be quite as simple as these thanks to the low-cost tariffs could also grow faster than the rest of the industry. (Fp)

Also read:
Many insured dissatisfied with the PKV
Consumer advocates warn against PKV low tariffs
Health insurance companies block insurance changes
PKV: No return for students in the GKV

Picture: Ronny Richert