This year, too, privately insured people had to accept a sharp rise in contributions.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Last year, 145,500 people switched from statutory to private health insurance. This emerges from unpublished figures from the private health insurance association, which are available in the Handelsblatt. 115,900 people went the opposite way.
According to the private health insurance association, these included many young people who had been privately insured since birth and who switched to the statutory health insurers when they started working. Another part was made up of self-employed people who took up employment subject to social security contributions.
Thus, for the fifth year in a row, more people with statutory health insurance switched to private health insurance than vice versa. Overall, there was an increase of 29,600 new members for the PKV last year. In 2021, the plus for private health insurance was 22,700 insured.
“The fact that almost 300,000 insured persons switch between the two systems every year proves that competition is working,” said the chairman of the private health insurance association, Thomas Brahm. Overall, however, the number of people with full private health insurance fell by 0.16 percent to 8.7 million, in particular because of the large number of deaths.
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The development is also in the light of some strong increases in premiums. As early as 2022, many privately insured people had to accept premiums, some of which rose sharply – on average it was 4.1 percent. This year, too, contributions increased by an average of three percent.
Company health insurance is becoming more important
The average contribution of 535 euros per month rose to around 551 euros. Slightly more than one in three of the 8.7 million fully insured customers was affected by an increase. In individual cases, the percentage increase is likely to be significantly higher and even double-digit.
>> Read here: How privately insured people can save despite rising contributions
The reasons for this were the costs for new medicines and treatments as well as the reduced investment income due to the recent low interest rates. Part of the private health insurance contributions flows into provisions that are used to finance medical expenses in old age. At the same time, the contribution rate for statutory health insurance rose by an average of 0.2 percentage points in 2023, reaching a record high.
Meanwhile, according to the private health insurance association, more companies are once again opting for company health insurance. 22,300 companies offer their employees company health insurance (bKV) that is fully paid for by the employer. This corresponds to growth of 22.5 percent compared to 2021. The number of employees with a BKV rose by 11.5 percent to 1.8 million.
More: Privately insured people will have to pay more from 2023