Health insurance companies report a record deficit of 5.7 billion euros – Then24

23 Feb 2022 7:45 am

In 2021, the statutory health insurance companies made the highest losses ever recorded. The deficit amounts to 5.7 billion euros, but is not due to “Corona”.

A message from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung according to the statutory health insurance companies generated the highest deficit in their history last year. The minus amounted to almost 5.7 billion euros, as the newspaper, citing information from health insurance associations reported.

In 1992, almost 30 years ago, the hitherto highest deficit of 4.8 billion euros was recorded. At that time, the losses were due to the transfer of the West German health insurance system to the new federal states after the reunification of Germany.

Corona played a minor role

According to the reports, the minus in 2021 was twice as high as in the previous year. However, the Corona crisis only played a minor role in the worsening of the financial situation of the cash registers. On the contrary, Corona would have had a cost-cutting effect because fewer patients went to doctors and dentists and took advantage of rehabilitation and preventive measures less often.

In the ranking of the deficits, the AOK federal association is at the top with 4.1 billion euros, followed by the substitute health insurance association with 576 million euros. This is followed by the company and guild health insurance funds (500 and 409 million euros), followed by the miners’ association with 104 million euros.

Causes of the deficit

The health insurers see the reasons for the increase in the deficit in the expansion of their services, also due to expensive medicines, which would cost more than one million euros a year for a therapy. In the field of dentistry, the statutory increase in fixed subsidies and new guidelines for periodontosis treatment have led to cost increases. Due to a change in the law, the cost of medicines has risen by almost 12 percent. In addition, the former Federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, ensured that the health insurance funds had to reduce their reserves in order to avoid increases in contributions.

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