Health Minister Linnemann Wants Health Insurers to Be Required to Inform Members of Premium Increases After All
Health Minister Linnemann wants to reverse the abolition of the obligation for statutory health insurers to notify members of premium increases. Consumer advocates in particular had sharply criticized the elimination of this requirement.
Just over two months ago, the Bundestag and Bundesrat approved the austerity package put together by the black-red governing coalition, which is intended to achieve significant savings in healthcare expenditure. But now Federal Health Minister Carsten Linnemann wants to overturn one of the regulations included in the package. Statutory health insurers are to be required once again to inform policyholders when premiums are raised.
"Contribution rates are crucial information for policyholders," the CDU politician told the Rheinische Post, explaining the about-face. Linnemann took over as Federal Health Minister at the end of July as part of a personnel reshuffle in the federal cabinet. He was officially sworn into the ministerial office in September.
The return to the notification requirement is about maintaining policyholders' trust in statutory health insurers, Linnemann further emphasized. According to the Rheinische Post, citing Linnemann's ministry, the notification requirement is to be reintroduced as part of further amendments to the so-called Contribution Rate Stability Act.
The Goal: Lower Costs Through Less Bureaucracy
When the austerity package was adopted in July, statutory health insurers were relieved of their obligation to actively notify members by letter when they raised their supplementary contribution. By abolishing the notification requirement, the federal government primarily sought to reduce costs associated with bureaucratic effort.
The letters informing policyholders of premium increases alone generated millions of euros in costs for materials and postage. According to industry estimates, these amounted to one to two euros per letter. In Germany, approximately 75 million people are enrolled in statutory health insurance, according to the umbrella organization of statutory health insurers (GKV).
Consumer Advocates Saw Policyholders' Rights Weakened
Consumer advocates sharply criticized the abolition of the notification requirement. They warned that it risked causing policyholders to notice premium increases too late, effectively undermining an existing special right of termination.
Without this special right of termination, policyholders are bound to their current insurer for at least twelve months. However, if policyholders are informed of premium increases in time, they can use this right to cancel their policy by the end of the month in which the increased supplementary contribution first takes effect.
For this reason, the chairwoman of the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, Ramona Pop, expressly welcomed Linnemann's announcement. It was "an important and long overdue signal," she also emphasized in conversation with the Rheinische Post. Only in this way would policyholders be able to exercise their special right of termination and assess whether switching insurers would be worthwhile.
The chairman of the GKV-Spitzenverband (National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds), Oliver Blatt, also expressed openness to a renewed notification requirement. "It is of course good and right that health insurance funds inform their members when there is a change in the contribution rate," he said, while at the same time pressing for the ability to announce contribution changes digitally. What statutory health insurance funds do not need, he said, "are bureaucratic requirements that create no real added value but merely lead to an increase in administrative costs."
