Health insurance companies warn of further increases in contributions

augsburg–The statutory health insurance companies accuse the federal government of austerity measures at the expense of the contributors and warn against further increases in contributions. “The bottom line is that contributors have to foot the bill by increasing the contributions in 2024 and in the years that follow,” said DAK CEO Andreas Storm of the Augsburger Allgemeine. As an example, he cited the lack of inflation compensation for hospital financing.

Storm warned that there could be a “ruinous price competition over the individual additional contributions”. Each insurance company can determine the additional contribution itself, depending on its financial situation. The officially expected average additional contribution rate for 2023 had risen from 1.3 to 1.6 percent.

Raising the general contribution rate for all health insurance companies would be “more honest”

It would be even more honest if the general contribution rate for all health insurance companies – currently 14.6 percent, divided between employees and employers – was raised, Storm said.

The AOK federal board chairwoman Carola Reimann criticized in the newspaper that the federal government has so far failed to come up with the solutions it promised in the coalition agreement to relieve the health insurance companies.

“These have been on the table for years, such as adequate financing of health care for people receiving citizenship benefits through additional federal funds or the reduction in VAT on pharmaceuticals.” All of this would permanently bring around ten billion euros more on the revenue side and around five billion euros Reduction in expenses, Reimann estimated.