PKV services and quality a change?

Private health insurance: benefits and quality: a change reason?

(21.09.2010) The discussion about the reorganization of the health insurance does not leave. Private health insurance companies (PKV) have recently been increasingly claiming state support for their saving efforts. So z. For example, the recent expansion of drug rebates has been the focus of public discussion. This procedure is harmful to the industry, explained Christoph Helmich from the board of the Continentale Krankenversicherung and therefore calls for a return to the classical benefits and benefits in private health insurance.

Discount and price discussion harmful to the PKV.
If private health insurers want to continue to win customers through performance and quality, in the opinion of the Continentale Board of Management, they can not define discounts and prices. Ie. They must be careful not only to be noticed in the public discussion with their savings efforts and low prices, because the statutory health insurance is provided for the low-cost basic health care system. According to the Continentale Board, the PKV take their own right to exist with the current statements. Because private insurers are so far for high quality and additional services, the always emphasized austerity measures but at the expense of quality and additional services. “We need to talk more about the benefit side again - about where we are better”, explained Christoph Helmich.

Equal treatment of PKV and GKV inappropriate.
The Continentale Board also criticized the fact that the private health insurance companies aim for cost reductions, but these do not arrive at the insured by lowering their contributions or additional benefits: „More money without more performance is not fair.“

In particular, the equality with the GKV in drug rebates Christoph Helmich is another thorn in the eye. The calculated PKV, which has always emphasized their differences to the statutory health insurance, now demand equal treatment is bordering on a revelatory oath. According to some experts, the fact that the black and yellow federal government has paved the way for private health insurance at this point, despite all the emphasis on liberal market forces, is also an indication of the poor state of private health insurance. CDU / CSU and FDP are therefore simply trying to protect the private health insurance against bankruptcy - if necessary, also at the expense of statutory insurance. For these have recently been felt to be increasingly competitive from private insurers.

Stronger cooperation despite clear demarcation between GKV and PKV.
But whoever demands the same benefits should also have the same disadvantages. However, none of the private health insurance companies would even dream of taking in every patient, as is the case with the GKV standard. So, according to the Continentale Board, the current direction is clearly the wrong one. Rather, a clear demarcation between private health insurance and statutory health insurance by means of special quality and additional services should continue to be sought for the future. However, a closer cooperation between the two insurance systems is also desirable from the point of view of Christoph Helmich.

Additional policies specifically to the SHI vote.
For example, in the field of supplementary insurance, private health insurance companies should cooperate more closely with the statutory health insurance funds and coordinate their additional policies specifically with regard to statutory health insurance and the needs of the legally insured. From the point of view of the Continentale Management Board, better cooperation is also well conceivable in terms of sales. For the future, it would also be desirable for the services to expand cooperation, for example in the form of shared medical or hospital networks, explained Christoph Helmich.

Cooperation as a lucrative business field.
In close cooperation with statutory insurance, many private health insurance companies see a lucrative business field for the future. Particularly in terms of terms of medical service provision opens up new perspectives in the opinion of the Continentale Board. In addition, according to Christoph Helmich, there is still considerable need for expansion in terms of services - such as emergency aid, round-the-clock emergency assistance, medical and psychological care for sick and injured persons abroad or medical care during a trip.

70 percent see better performance in private health insurance, 32 percent would change the insurance.
In his statements Christoph Helmich invokes a recent study, which has carried out the opinion polling institute TNS Infratest on behalf of the Continentale health insurance. Among other things, the study concludes that more than 70 percent of those surveyed would expect a private health insurance scheme to be more comprehensive than a statutory one and that 32 percent of those insured would switch if they had the opportunity. For this reason, the regulations adopted to simplify a change in private health insurance have now been welcomed by the Continental Executive Board.

Insurance change in the PKV from 2011 facilitates.
While insured persons could switch to private health insurance only for a minimum of three years above the so-called compulsory insurance limit, from 2011 it is possible to take out private health insurance for a one-off annual income of at least 49,950 euros per year. However, whether this will trigger the PBV expected change wave remains to be seen. For the reservations with the insured against private health insurance grow. In particular, the difficult-to-calculate costs, which come with a chronic illness or in the course of increased age-related illnesses on the patients, here are still deterrent.

56 percent consider dispensing with the chief physician unnecessary.
For example, as part of the Continentale study, two-thirds of the insured indicated that changing their insurance policy was not an option for them. Only 40 percent of the respondents are therefore convinced that private insurers can secure permanently affordable prices, but only 56 percent of the statutory health insurances also assume this. In the study, TNS Infratest also asked the insured about PKV benefits that they are most likely to do without. For example, 56 per cent of the insured consider the treatment of the chief physician unnecessary, 54 per cent the health care, 53 per cent the accommodation in the two-bed room in the hospital and 53 per cent the benefits of naturopathy. If one considers only the responses of the privately insured, even 60 percent of them feel that the chief physician treatment is dispensable, 63 percent the prevention, 50 percent the shorter waiting times for private patients and 49 percent the support in the search for a doctor. (Fp)

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