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Mobility training in a physical practice (symbolic image)
Photo: Ute Grabowsky / Photothek / Getty Images
Do you know that?
You will receive a letter from your health insurance company at the end of the year.
This may contain good Christmas wishes, but maybe also a reference to a premium increase.
And that can be very expensive.
This December, however, most of the insured will be spared.
As things currently stand, hardly any of the major health insurers are increasing their contribution at the turn of the year: The largest, TK, will officially not make the decision until Tuesday, but is already signaling stability.
Barmer and DAK also want to stay with the previous contribution: the 14.6 percent that are generally due plus the additional contribution of 1.5 percent.
That makes 16.1 percent together.
However, the approval of the Board of Directors and the Federal Social Security Office has not yet been received.
Other funds such as the IKK Classic, the Siemens company health insurance fund (SBK), the HEK and the company health insurance fund VBU do not want to increase the contribution.
Only the cheapest nationwide, the HKK, wants to raise the rate from 14.99 to 15.29 percent.
Extensive price stability despite Corona?
Or even because of Corona.
Responsible for the calm situation with regard to the contributions are on the one hand the insured persons who were unable to have an operation and who did not attend the many preventive medical check-ups as regularly.
The AOK Bayern, for example, complained this week a minus of 18 percent in skin cancer screening, minus ten percent in mammography screening and minus eight percent in prostate cancer early detection.
On the other hand, there is the federal government, which compensates for the additional burdens caused by Corona with higher subsidies to the health insurance system: another seven billion euros extra for 2022.
So the contributions would actually not have to increase significantly.
Big difference in the wallet
But what if your personal contribution is still too high for you? Well then you can switch. Among the nationwide health insurances there is the very cheap HKK, which will probably charge a total of 15.29 percent in 2022 (on their homepage it says 14.99 percent that the increase from Thursday has not yet been approved by the supervisory authority, according to the HKK ). But there are also funds like BKK24, which debits a 17.1 percent contribution from employees, 1.8 percent more. Admittedly an outlier, but for an average gross wage earner with 3400 euros that is a difference of 360 euros per year - the employer who pays half of the health insurance costs saves just as much.
If you want to work out how much health insurance contributions you could save if you went to the cheapest nationwide fund, here is the calculator.
Simply enter your gross monthly salary and your cash register.
But should you actually save on health insurance?
There are two answers to that.
First, of course you can. And it's perfectly fine, too.
Because around 95 percent of health insurance benefits are the same on average.
And if your own need for health services is well covered by the 95 percent, then it is worthwhile to look primarily at the price when making a comparison.
In fact, patient surveys show that saving is one of the great motivations behind switching health insurers.
And second: You can just take a closer look at the five percent of the services.
And whether something can be saved there.
The additional services
The other big motive is the anger about underperformance.
And there are basically two variants:
A service that customers expect, but has not been achieved.
The annoyance is initially completely independent of the question of whether the health insurance company is right to refuse the service or not.
A service that the health insurer does not pay for, but other health insurers do.
For example, the assumption of the regular costs for teeth cleaning at the dentist.
In fact, quite a few health insurance companies pay the cleaning or a subsidy.
Such benefits are usually set out in the statutes of the health insurance company, and many health insurance companies have lashed them in these days.
You should compare the result again in the new year.
My colleagues at Finanztip will investigate this again.
The double weighing
Both questions are therefore directly related to one another.
If I use the regular teeth cleaning twice a year and let's say 80 euros each, then that would be 160 euros additional costs for me if the health insurance company does not pay for it.
If the cheapest health insurance company in the country would be 150 euros cheaper a year with my income, but not cleaning the teeth, then the change is no longer worthwhile.
(This is then only worthwhile for my employer, because he saves the 150 euros in real terms.)
The tax
In fact, the situation is even more complicated.
If I save the 150 euros a year, it increases my salary, so to speak, and the tax office would also like a few more euros in taxes from me.
So in the end I may only save around 100 euros at the checkout with the low additional contribution, but pay the 160 euros on top.
Not a good deal in this case.
So if you are very sober with your health insurance, it is worth making exactly this comparison.
How much do you earn gross per year, how much could you save in premium and do you possibly lose an additional service that is currently free of charge?
The decision can be very different depending on the salary.
You can use the Finanztip calculator so that you don't make a mistake.
Two examples: With a gross monthly wage of 2000 euros, when changing from the most expensive to the cheapest fund, 216 euros a year before taxes remain.
At 5000 euros gross, however, there are 522 euros per year.
From an average fund with a 16.1 percent contribution such as the Barmer or the DAK to the inexpensive HKK, you save almost half, for the high earner in the example, specifically 232 euros.
The till communication
So far so good. Now we come to a question that is more difficult to figure out. The question is how openly and clearly your cash register deals with you. Let's assume the following: You have applied for a rehabilitation measure. But the cash register did not want to pay. That's annoying enough. It gets worse if the health insurance fund does not properly account for your decision. She should explain to you why there was a refusal. And also how you can appeal against this decision. It's really easy, but many patients don't even know it. Bad education alone is a valid reason to change, even if the health insurance company was right.
Another example: let's say your husband snores.
Did you know that from 2022 the health insurance fund will be able to pay for the brace that prevents his snoring and gives you more sleep.
If a cash register draws attention to something like this, that is a good service.
The brace costs a lot of money.
My short and crisp conclusion before Christmas: If you have not particularly challenged your health insurance company recently and you cannot foresee that, you can save a lot of money.
But if your cash register has become an important part of everyday life with its special services, look at these services - and only then at the price.
Quite banal, actually.
Yet many do not.
What you can see from the fact that many do not change their registers even though they are dissatisfied.