Legal health insurance risks raising rates to as high as 20 percent
According to the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), there is a threat of an increase in contributions of up to 20 percent in the statutory health insurance by the end of the decade. Jens Baas, the chairman of the TK board, told the newspapers of the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) on Thursday that there would already be "significant increases in contribution rates across the board in statutory health insurance" at the beginning of the new year. The Federal Ministry of Health declined to make direct statements about the development of contributions but stated that it is working on sustainable financing.
Baas said that an increase of up to 0.6 percentage points in the coming year is "absolutely realistic," which would result in an average contribution of almost 17 percent. "That was once considered a completely absurd figure," he said. However, the increase will continue: "Without countermeasures, we are heading towards a contribution rate of 20 percent by the end of the decade."
The general contribution to statutory health insurance is currently 14.6 percent of income. In addition, there is the supplementary contribution, which depends on the health insurance company and is currently an average of 1.7 percent this year, according to the Federal Ministry of Health.
The head of Germany's largest health insurance company blamed Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) for the rising costs and called on him to ensure the stability of the health insurance funds.
The rising costs in the Statutory Health Insurance have led Baas to warn about potential "significant increases in contribution rates," implying a need for legal measures to maintain affordability. If countermeasures aren't taken, the contribution rate could escalate to 20% by the end of the decade, a figure previously considered unrealistic.
