Private health insurance Many do not pay

550 million loss by contributors in the private health insurance

28/01/2012

The discussion about the enormous losses of the private health insurance (PKV) by contribution providers does not break off. Due to the compulsory insurance introduced in 2009, defaulting payers can no longer simply be terminated. The government has now developed an emergency plan to cushion the losses of more than 550 million euros. In addition, some of the private health insurance companies have changed their tariff structure and thus renounce in the future on cheap lock offers, because these are one reason for the high number of contributors.

Compulsory insurance prevents dismissal of non-payers
Dirk Lullies, spokesman for the Association of Private Health Insurance told the newspaper „The world“: „At the end of September 2011, there were a total of 144,000 non-payers in private health insurance.“ More and more insured paid no more contributions, although they were entitled to benefits, the association said. The background to this is the compulsory insurance cover introduced in 2009 in the context of health care reform, which does not allow PKV to terminate its members on account of arrears. "Who can no longer pay his contributions, accumulates debts," say consumer advocates and demand immediate legal regulations. Because the way back into the statutory health insurance is denied most private insured. "The problem is homemade", because so-called Locktarife many people were lured into private insurance, which can not afford it due to their income situation. This has also been seen by the insurance industry, which is why most of the major providers abolished the "low tariffs" at the beginning of the year.

New tariff planned for non-payer
Due to the contribution voucher private health insurance companies lacked around 554 million euros. To mitigate these losses and avoid them in the future, the federal government plans to introduce a so-called „Non-payers tariff“ (Also: new PKV tariff for non-payers). This should be about 100 euros per month and include only the most necessary health services. In plain language, this tariff means that insured persons can only seek medical help in acute emergencies or pregnancy, unless they pay for the treatment themselves. The Federal Ministry of Finance and Federal Ministry of Justice are currently preparing the necessary changes „The world“.

Problem of nonpayers is homemade
What is often concealed in the discussion about the high losses of private health insurance are the home-made reasons. Many PKV attracted new customers with cheap offers, but then offered a higher tariff. As part of the mandatory insurance introduced in 2009, many customers felt addressed and concluded a private health insurance, although they would be better off in the statutory insurance. Now especially the insurance companies suffer from non-payers, who had attracted many new customers through such cheap offers. These include, among others, the Generali subsidiary Central and the Ergo subsidiary DKV. Both have now revised their tariff structure and set cheap lock offers. Another reason for the high losses of private health insurance companies is the steadily rising brokerage commissions. These are now significantly minimized. Although some private health insurance companies have already reacted and taken various measures, there will definitely be massive increases in premiums. The PKV Central announced, for example, to increase the premiums in individual tariffs by up to 40 percent. Victims are first and foremost the old and existing customers.

Tariff change often pointless
There is hardly a way to escape the tariff increase. Although privately insured could switch to a new provider, but this brings with it various problems. On the one hand, the old provider will refuse to include the accrued age provisions so that the insured person will lose them. On the other hand, the newcomer will also require a health check, which may be worse than the one made by the insured person at an early stage with the old supplier. Because, as you know, the risk of illness increases with age. Since the result of the health examination is decisive for the new tariff, this may be as high or higher than the contribution increase of the old provider. These methods are deliberately used by the industry to prevent the customer from switching suppliers.

In all, just under nine million people in Germany are fully insured privately. In comparison, around 70 million citizens in the statutory health insurance compulsorily insured. (Ag)

Read about PKV:
Complaints about increase in PKV contributions
New PKV tariff for non-payers
Contributor: PKV increases massively tariffs

Picture: Gerd Altmann