According to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the expenditures of the statutory health insurers (GKV) have increased rapidly. According to the report, a large deficit of three billion euros was generated in the third quarter of 2020, which is the result of postponed and later catch-up treatments and operations. In contrast, the first quarter of the current year closed with a surplus of 1.3 billion euros due to postponed measures in doctors‘ practices, hospitals, physiotherapists and rehabilitation facilities. According to the FAZ, patients who would have received treatment and therapies under normal conditions would not have dared to go to the appropriate facilities during the Covid 19 pandemic. According to the newspaper, the loss recorded in the third quarter was 16 times higher than in the same period last year. The Chairman of the Board of the AOK Federal Association – the largest health insurer in the GKV -Martin Litsch, predicts gloomy times for the health insurance companies, as a deficit of 17 million euros is expected as early as 2022, which could not be compensated by the reserves of the statutory health insurance companies. Even concepts such as that of the Federal Minister of Health in the form of the GKV-Versichertenentlastungsgesetz (law to relieve the burden on the SHI insurants), under which the contributions will again be borne equally by employers and the insured, cannot relieve the tense situation of the insurances. The situation would be aggravated by the fact that the benefit expenditure of the miners‘ insurance has risen rapidly compared to 2018. As examples of this, Litsch cited expenses for protective vaccinations, which have risen by five percent, and the increase in sick pay by as much as 20 percent.
