Merger of PKV and GKV required

Unification of health insurance systems

06/22/2012

Standardization of private health insurance (PKV) and statutory health insurance (SHI) versus division of the system. Thus, the positions of the participants in a discussion round at the Capital City Congress 2012 Health and Medicine in Berlin summarized shortened. The topic is explosive, especially since the future of private health insurance has become more and more in the last months in question.

At the Capital City Congress 2012 Health and Medicine last week representatives of politics, the medical profession and the health insurance discussed in a panel discussion on the future of the German health care system. Although there was no consensus on the form of the future health insurance system, it became clear that the survival of private health insurance is particularly hotly contested.

Demand for a uniform health insurance system
The spokesman for health policy of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, Jens Spahn, the chairman of the Bundestag Committee on Health, Dr. med. Carola Reimann (SPD), the Chief Executive of the German Medical Association, Dr. med. Bernhard Rochell and the Chairman of the DAK Health Board, Prof. Dr. med. Herbert Rebscher discussed her ideas about the future German health insurance system during a panel discussion at the 2012 Capital Congress. Dr. Carola Reimann and Prof. Rebscher were in favor of standardizing the system, although this was by no means equated with a single health insurance. Only the frame must be the same for all health insurance companies. The current division of the health insurance system should be overcome. They see their position supported by the recently published joint study of the Kieler Institut für Mikrodaten-Analyze (IfMDA) and the Frankfurt-based consulting firm PremiumCircle Deutschland GmbH, which had highlighted significant deficiencies in insurance coverage in numerous private health insurance tariffs. However, the study had also revealed weaknesses in the statutory health insurance.

Divided by PKV and GKV
Jens Spahn was against a merger of private and public health insurance, as this does not solve the health problems. However, in the SPD-favored model of civil insurance, the CDU health politician also recognized commonalities with his party's positions. Actually, the hitherto practiced wage base of insurance premiums is in fact insufficient, and to that extent it makes sense to put them on a broader basis than exclusively on the income-related contributions of employees and employers. Already today, up to 15 billion euros a year flow from tax revenue into statutory health insurance, according to Spahn. Spahn was supported by the Chief Executive of the German Medical Association to support the claim to maintain the bipartite health insurance system. Dr. Bernhard Rochell emphasized that "the system competition between private health insurance and statutory health insurance promotes innovation and should therefore be maintained. However, the performance deficits identified in the current study should be eliminated. (Fp)

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Picture credits: Ronny Richert