Wasem: health insurers should not have their financial needs entirely covered by contributions

The health economist Jürgen Wasem has pledged to limit the financial framework of the statutory health insurance. In the weekly newspaper „Die Zeit“, he has called for a reduction in insurance premiums, so there are no surpluses and the competitive pressure on the health insurance will grow – for the benefit of policyholders.

The contributions of the insured should not completely cover the financial needs of the health insurance so that all funds must raise additional contributions. The result would be a renewed competition, meaning all the funds must therefore increase spending and pay costs.

Wasem sees several reasons for the unequal financial situation of the health insurance. In addition to the regional distribution of the insured, there are methodological flaws in the allocations from the health fund in terms of age, in that the health insurance is too high for the young and the old only receive small allocations.

Commentary: Administrative expenditure of the statutory health insurance funds amounts to 5.5% of total expenditure, where the remaining 94.5% is service expenditure. Although there certainly are reserves in the management of many public health insurance, and they could operate more efficiently, this proportion can never catch the gap in income.

A health insurance company that has to raise sufficient revenue not through an additional contribution will try to focus on service expenditure, especially the service providers in the resource market by extending repayment periods and stricter supervision of the accounts. Ultimately, however, it will be difficult to increase health insurance provision in light of the pressure to improve efficiency. This could be better achieved through other measures for the insurance carriers to limit the revenue (such as changes in the allocation by the health fund, legal requirements, etc.).