Stricter supervision for statutory health insurance

Survey: Germans are afraid of monopolies and want stricter supervision for public health insurance

05/16/2012

The Federal Cartel Office should supervise the statutory health insurance more, it is currently the legislature and it plans to 76 percent of Germans. This emerges from a Forsa survey, commissioned by the Siemens Health Insurance SBK
has been.

The draft of an Eighth Law amending the Law against Restraints of Competition was first discussed in the Bundesrat on 11 May. It provides for strict rules on merger control and assigns a key role to the Cartel Office. The project is controversial, but not among the federal citizens. On behalf of the health insurance SBK the opinion research institute forsa had asked over 1,000 Germans to: 76 percent are of the opinion that the Cartel Office should also supervise the statutory health insurance more when it comes to mergers and contracts. Only 16 percent find it should be here for the statutory health insurance exceptions.

In general, the German sits in the gasoline fright of the past weeks and months in the limbs. 79 percent of respondents fear that concentrating on a few suppliers in one market will lead to rising prices, as happened with gasoline and diesel. 17 percent do not fear this. An overwhelming majority of 91 percent see a lot of competition and large SMEs as a recipe for healthy growth: Nine out of ten respondents believe that a broad-based market contributes more to economic growth and job security than a small-scale one providers. Only a few (6 percent) believe that a market with few large providers contributes to economic growth.

The Germans express a lopsided statement as to whether citizens want to and should be able to co-decide on the organization of a functioning competition order. 48 percent of Germans believe that antitrust and competition law is an area where citizens should have as much say as they can. As many think that this is not an issue for all citizens and the policy should take care of it with the help of subject matter experts. In addition, many Germans (58 percent) can not see any clear benefits for themselves if there is more competition, especially in the healthcare sector, 37 percent of Germans believe that they as a patient of more competition in the
Healthcare would benefit.

The Siemens Health Insurance Fund supports the current bill for stricter cartel supervision. "We can thus reach an important milestone in order to grant the insured persons full freedom of choice and decision-making, which they would lose in regional and nationwide monopolies," says Hans Unterhuber, CEO of the Siemens Health Insurance SBK.

Interesting result by the way: In the context of the Federal Council debate, the party The Left had criticized the government plans violently. However, the forsa poll reveals a different picture among voters and the grassroots: 72 percent of left-wing supporters believe that the antitrust authorities should also supervise statutory health insurance funds (CDU / CSU 80, FDP 75, SPD 79, Grünen 67 and Piraten 80) Percent).