GKV: Number of uninsured drops, but not without a downside

According to the Statistischen Bundesamt, the number of uninsured people in Germany fell by 30 percent. With the introduction of mandatory health insurance four years ago by the then Health Minister Ulla Schmidt (SPD), there are now only 137,000 people without health insurance.

However, this positive development of social policy has a downside: the number of non-payers has therefore increased significantly. Most affected are the self-employed and unemployed, of whom still 0.8 percent (national average: 0.2 percent) are not covered in case of illness.

Spitzenverband der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung, the leading association of statutory health insurance, has now confirmed to newspaper „Der Tagesspiegel“ that this year, the debt increased by 55 percent from EUR 1.08 billion in August 2011 to EUR 1.67 billion in June 2012.

Commentary: In the privaten Krankenversicherung (PKV), there is also the problem of non-payers. Here, in proportion to the number of people insured, it is even greater than in the statutory funds. According to the association, premium liabilities in the PKV currently amount to EUR 550 million. There are around 140,000 people still owing, around 1.5% of those in the PKV.

[ilink url=“http://www.ftd.de/unternehmen/versicherungen/:gesundheitssystem-versicherungspflicht-kostet-krankenkassen-milliarden/70079215.html#utm_source=rss2&utm_medium=rss_feed&utm_campaign=/unternehmen“] Link zur Quelle (Financial Times Deutschland)[/ilink]