At the beginning of 2021, health insurers such as Techniker, Barmer, AOK and Co. will increase their contributions.
Customers have this option.
Various
insurance providers
have increased their
premium payments
.
Some
health insurance companies
, such as the
AOK
,
cite
the
Corona *
pandemic
as the
reason for the premium adjustments
.
Policyholders
do not have to put up with the increases in
health insurance
contributions
.
Kassel - For many people with health insurance it will be more expensive at the turn of the year: Statutory health insurances are increasing their contribution enormously - especially the three largest
insurance providers
will adjust their additional contributions upwards.
Policyholders do not necessarily have to accept this, however.
As the specialist magazine
Versicherungsbote
reports, some
statutory health insurance companies
will require significantly higher contributions for their health insurance * from 2021
, according to
current press releases from the health insurance companies.
Accordingly, the largest providers, which are
Techniker Krankenkasse (TK),
the
Barmer
and
AOK Plus
their cash individual
additional contributions
raise strong, because they have suffered some loss of money through the corona pandemic.
+
For many insured persons, it will be more expensive from 2021: Some statutory health insurances are increasing their additional contributions, sometimes significantly.
Insured persons can do that now. (Symbol picture)
© Oliver Berg
Contribution increases at AOK and Co .: Techniker Krankenkasse sees adjustments as necessary
The
additional contribution
is calculated in addition to the general contribution from the contributory income of an employee and employer and deducted directly from this.
The largest health insurer in Germany,
Techniker Krankenkasse,
with around 10.67 million policyholders, is one of those who will increase the additional premiums from 2021: A premium of 1.2 percent will be charged from January 1st - this was still the case last year at 0.7 percent, which, however, was well below the officially recommended contribution.
Dominik Kruchen, alternating chairman of the TK board of directors and employer representative, justifies the increase in the additional contribution: “We have thus complied with the legal requirement to reduce financial reserves, and at the same time the costs in the healthcare system continue to rise.
Now it is necessary that we adjust the contribution. "
Higher additional contribution to health insurance - AOK and Barmer from 2021 with contribution jumps
The
Barmer
Ersatzkasse
is also
planning
a premium increase: the second largest health insurance company in Germany, with almost 8.97 million insured persons, is raising the additional premium by 0.4 percentage points.
Barmer policyholders now have to pay 1.5 percent instead of 1.1 percent and thus give up a total of 16.1 percent of the gross wage.
The third health insurance company that is increasing its contributions is
AOK Plus.
Insured persons now have to pay a whopping 1.2 percent instead of 0.6 percent - this particularly affects around 3.4 million policyholders in Saxony and Thuringia, as AOK Plus is the clear market leader there.
With the increase, the monthly contribution rate then amounts to a total of 15.8 percent.
The
AOK Sachsen-Anhalt
, with 670,000 insured persons, is also
affected
by this
premium adjustment
, but since the additional
premium was
previously 0 percent, it remains comparatively cheap.
The health insurance contribution is becoming more expensive: AOK and Co. report the corona crisis as a reason for premium increases
The health insurance companies give the
corona crisis
and the
health policy of the federal government
in their press
releases
as the reason for the
jump
in contributions.
AOK association chief Martin Litsch had already criticized the fact that the costs of the pandemic would be unilaterally imposed on those insured by statutory health insurance companies.
The immense costs that result from the additional intensive care beds and the infrastructure for the vaccinations resulted in enormous financial losses for the providers.
But the
health reforms
of recent years have also become expensive for health insurers, for example the Appointment Service Act or reforms for improved care.
In addition, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahns (CDU) demand that the saved reserves should be released, the coffers hard.
However, on the other hand, they were able to
save a lot of money
during the
corona crisis
, as some services, for example in rehab centers, could not be used by patients.
Higher additional contributions to health insurance - 47 percent of those questioned in an Innofact survey had great or very great worries about it.
https://t.co/XujVlfnnvB@CarstenHerz @schieritz @niklashoyer pic.twitter.com/ApGYl7M9gD
- Toralf Richter (@Toralf_R) December 7, 2020
Increases in health insurance contributions: This is what policyholders can do
However, insured
persons do not necessarily have to accept
these
premium increases
from their own health insurance: Due to the so-called mandatory contract, it is relatively easy to look for a new statutory insurance provider, because every insurance fund has to accept every person with compulsory insurance.
However, if you plan to
change
, policyholders should
always keep an eye on the notice period of the previous health insurance company - but usually the new insurance company takes care of the remaining formalities, such as deregistering with the previous insurance provider and transmitting the data to the employer.
(Alina Schröder)
* hna.de and ruhr24.de are part of the nationwide Ippen digital editorial network.
List of rubric lists: © Oliver Berg