Radical reform of the health system demanded

TK chief for radical reform of the health insurance system

04/11/2012

The chairman of the board of the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), Norbert Klusen, has called for a radical reform of the health care system. „In the long term, the difference between private patient and patient has to disappear“, emphasized the TC chief.

In conversation with the „Financial Times Germany“ (FTD) pleaded for the abolition of the two-tier health insurance system, which he believes would be the transformation of statutory health insurance (SHI) by public corporations into joint-stock companies or mutual societies. Klusen's considerations are based on a recent report on the future structuring of the health insurance market.

Competition between private and public health insurance
In view of the growing problems with private health insurance (PKV), several statutory health insurance funds had called for a fundamental reform of the insurance system in recent weeks. Mostly with the tenor that an abolition of private health insurance is required. The chairman of the Techniker Krankenkasse is now taking a new path and calling for a dissolution of private health insurance on the same conditions. His idea is that in this way the difference between private patient and cash-client will disappear in the long run, explained Norbert Klusen to the FTD. Also the TK boss posed similar to how recently his colleague from the AOK the question, „whether today's separation of private and statutory health insurance still makes sense.“ However, Klusen's answer goes in a fundamentally different direction. Instead of abolishing private health insurance, the statutory health insurance funds should be aligned in their legal status with private insurers. Thus, private and legal providers could in the future compete under the same legal framework or cooperate, said Klusen with reference to a recent report, which was submitted to the FTD in excerpts. Both systems would in this way develop into a unified insurance market with more competition and permeability, according to the TK chief.

Reform of the health insurance system
The radical reform approach of the TK chairman of the board envisages a transformation of the statutory health insurance companies into joint-stock companies or mutual insurance companies in order to reach an end to the two-tier system. The previous separation of the insured by occupation and income groups would therefore have an end. Klusen's new initiative opens up new perspectives for the debate on the future of the German health insurance system. In view of the financial difficulties and the corresponding increases in contributions to various private insurers, individual chairpersons of the statutory health insurance funds had strongly attacked private health insurance in recent weeks and indirectly called for their abolition. In politics, the unique German health insurance system with two parallel types of insurance is also quite controversial and more and more politicians have recently spoken out for a fundamental reform. „The time has come to think about changes“, emphasized also the resigning chairman of the board of TK.

Objectification of the debate on the future of the health insurance system
With the presented report the TC chief hopes according to own data to an objectification of the debate around the future of the health system to contribute. Here first steps are shown, „how we could open the rigid boundaries between private and legal“, emphasized Klusen. His proposal offers the statutory health insurance companies the option to offer their own additional services or to buy them directly from doctors, clinics or pharmaceutical manufacturers and thus compete with private health insurance companies. As a matter of principle, according to the report submitted, the list of services provided by the GKV is not to be shaken, as is the difference in the financing of the two systems „FTD“. The PKV should continue to be reserved only for certain professional and income groups, determine their contributions according to the risk and have the option of selecting their insured persons. Whether in this way a kind of partial privatization of the statutory health insurance, the performance differences between the approximately 72 million statutory health insurance and almost nine million private insurance can be resolved and whether the contributions in the PKV do not continue to explode, remains an open question, but Klusen's initiative is at least contributing to a revival the debate on the future of the German health insurance system. (Fp)

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