Which statutory health insurance companies can score?

GKV quality ranking 2021

Employees with statutory health insurance can save money by changing their health insurance provider. They have the opportunity to do so every twelve months.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Dusseldorf Around 73 million people in Germany were insured with statutory health insurance in July 2021. 57 million of these have paid contributions for themselves and their family members who are co-insured free of charge. The good news is: In all likelihood, they will no longer have to pay for their health insurance coverage in 2022.

But that is exactly what should be done. “In the coming year, the statutory health insurance companies will be missing seven billion euros as things stand”, says Thomas Adolph, Managing Director of Kassensuche GmbH. According to the current health minister, Jens Spahn (CDU), the plan is to make up the deficit from the federal budget.

The outgoing federal government wants to achieve its goal of keeping social contributions below the 40 percent mark. This is what the grand coalition decided last year with the “Social Guarantee 2021”.

When it comes to the threat of higher contributions, the insured can seemingly breathe a sigh of relief. But that is a fallacy. They are indirectly asked to pay more than they were a year ago. Because more and more health insurers are canceling voluntary additional services or lavish bonus programs.

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“The perspective question is therefore less: Which funds will keep their contributions stable? But: What do the insured get for their money there? ”Says Thomas Lemke. Lemke is considered a profound expert on the German health insurance market.

Contribution differences are almost as high as in last year’s comparison

Exclusively for the Handelsblatt, the German Finance Service Institute (DFSI) in Cologne not only scrutinized and systematically evaluated the contribution rates and benefits of the statutory health insurances, but also their service and financial strength. The DFSI then assigned rating grades on this basis.

The result shows in black and white: The difference in contributions is almost as high as in last year’s comparison. The cheapest health insurance company with 14.99 percent is still the Handelskrankenkasse (HKK). The difference to the most expensive providers is at the top over two percentage points.

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The level of performance, however, has fallen across the board. The best example of this: the Techniker Krankasse (TK). The Hamburg team was able to defend its first place in the overall ranking compared to the previous year. But while TK crossed the finish line a year ago with an “Excellent”, this time it was only a “Very Good”.

The reason for this: In addition to the weaker performance in terms of financial strength, the result in the range of services was around four points lower than in the previous year. The tendency is similar for the two places among the national health insurance funds Hanseatische Krankenkasse (HEK) and Handelskrankenkasse (HKK). AOK Plus, which is only open regionally, has moved into second place.

Before switching: Insured persons should check the benefits of the new fund

Employees with statutory health insurance can save money by changing their health insurance provider. They have the opportunity to do so every twelve months. However, there is a special right of termination, for example, when the additional contribution is increased or when changing employers.

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Insured persons no longer have to cancel the existing fund themselves. The new fund takes care of this. The notice period is two months to the end of the month. Before switching, however, the insured should also pay attention to the services of the new provider.

“In order not to experience any nasty surprises here, it is particularly important to pay attention to quality and transparency,” says Adolph, head of the POS search. “Statutory health insurance companies generally have high demands on their work. But there are clear differences in how this is perceived by the insured. ”

The GKV corporate quality rating from the Handelsblatt helps insured persons to find out which provider can manage the balancing act: to be one step ahead in terms of performance and still charge a favorable premium rate. Even more: Using the DFSI analysis, every person with statutory health insurance can pick out the insurance company whose offers are particularly relevant to their health needs.

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The top-placed among the nationwide open tills offer solid good performance across all areas. In addition, there are regional providers who know how to score in individual cases in terms of performance or good service.

In order to become a member of the regionally open funds, either the insured person or the employer must be based in the respective business area. A closer comparison with the supraregional top dogs is worthwhile.

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