As of: February 4, 2024, 7:09 a.m
By: Amy Walker
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Pensioners who have multiple incomes often pay double health insurance contributions.
For many this causes a lack of understanding.
The traffic light actually wanted to address the issue.
And now?
Berlin - You read about it again and again in forums or letters to the editor, because no one can really understand it: Why do pensioners who have more than one source of income have to pay health insurance contributions twice?
It is a vexed topic and one that the traffic light coalition once promised to attack.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has already promised in several speeches to “end double contributions”.
What has happened since then: nothing.
Health insurance companies charge contributions on all income - including pensions
How and for what health insurance contributions are collected is laid down in the Social Code (SGB) V.
It states that health insurance contributions must be paid on all of a person's income, up to a certain upper limit, the contribution assessment limit.
The income is added up - and if everything is below the contribution assessment limit, then contributions have to be paid on everything.
Pensions of any form are not exempt from this rule.
In 2024, the contribution assessment limit will be 62,100 euros.
From the perspective of pensioners - and actually from the perspective of many politicians - this double contribution is extremely unfair.
After all, they have already paid health insurance contributions to their company pension during their working lives.
Improvements were made in 2020 with the introduction of the tax-free amount on company pensions (previously, the health insurance contribution was charged on 100 percent of the company pension).
But essentially the double contribution still exists.
Example
Thomas L. is retired.
He receives a monthly pension of 1,500 euros from the statutory pension insurance.
He also has a company pension of 600 euros per month.
His annual income amounts to 25,200 euros (gross).
This is well below the contribution assessment limit of currently 62,100 euros per year, which is why Thomas has to pay contributions on both incomes.
A tax allowance of 176.75 euros applies to the company pension.
Thomas only has to pay health insurance contributions of 423.25 euros.
His health insurance company requires a contribution of 14.6 percent, so he pays 61.79 euros per month for the company pension.
The statutory pension has a uniform rate of 14.6 percent, which pensioners only have to pay half of.
The pension insurance transfers this together with its share directly to the health insurance company.
Thmoas L. pays 109.50 euros per month as a health insurance contribution to the statutory pension.
In total, Thomas pays 178.07 euros to his health insurance company every month.
You can see how absurd it can become if you, as a pensioner, work in a job that is subject to social security contributions.
Then the employer and employee (in this case the pensioner) pay half of the health insurance contributions and the health insurance company also receives half a contribution from the pensioner and the pension fund each in addition to the pension.
Anyone who earns a good wage can quickly exceed the contribution assessment limit - i.e. pay a maximum amount from their wages to the health insurance companies and also a portion from their pension.
Double contributions should come to an end - but the health insurance companies need money
The traffic light coalition actually wanted to change that.
This would be an important change, especially given that the coalition wants to make continuing to work after retirement age more attractive.
But despite repeated announcements by the Chancellor, little has happened so far.
When asked by the Federal Ministry of Health, it was said that the introduction of the allowance would already reduce the burden on company pensioners by 1.2 billion euros annually.
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“Against the background of the current financial situation, it is currently still unclear whether there will be opportunities to further relieve the burden on company pensioners [...] during the legislative period.
Such relief is not part of the coalition agreement,” said the press spokesman.
Retirees often pay for their health insurance more than once.
© Michael Gstettenbauer/Imago
The problem will probably not be easy for the federal government to solve.
On the one hand, you have the pensioners who they want to satisfy as a voting bloc.
On the other hand, there are the health insurance companies, which cannot simply forego millions in premium payments.
On the contrary: in 2024, the statutory health insurance funds expect a deficit of 3.5 billion euros.
So it's a politically tricky issue - but it's made no less tricky by the fact that it's not being addressed at all.