New private health insurance policyholders (PKV) will now have to pay significantly higher premiums. According to information from industry sources, premiums for private insurance will rise by between 4 and 10 percent. Private nursing care is even more expensive, rising by up to 20%. Existing customers must also expect rising prices too, the Financial Times Deutschland reports.
The grounds for premium increases is the extremely low interest rates on the capital market. Crucially, the level of decrease to the rate – as with life insurance – indicates the minimum interest rates. Instead of the current 3.5%, companies are now only guaranteeing a 2.75% rate.
The price increase will be introduced in conjunction with the new gender-neutral premium rates, which all insurance companies must switch to.
It will be interesting to see how the approximately nine million policyholders react to this news. There could be a number of switches to statutory health insurance, if the private insurance funds decide to lower interest rates. Industry leaders Debeka and DKV could take this step later this year.
[ilink url=“http://www.ftd.de/unternehmen/versicherungen/:kosten-fuer-pkv-private-krankenversicherer-muessen-beitraege-erhoehen/70090374.html#utm_source=rss2&utm_medium=rss_feed&utm_campaign=/unternehmen“] Link zur Quelle (Financial Times Deutschland)[/ilink]