Wednesday, January 24, 2024, 10:50 a.m
Berlin – Uwe Klemens, honorary chairman of the Association of Replacement Funds. V. (vdek), has called on the federal government to finally ensure reliable and stable financing of statutory health insurance (GKV). “Year after year, the statutory health insurance is faced with a new financing gap, and politicians can think of nothing more than to burden the insured and employers with higher contributions and to use the health insurance companies’ reserves. The contribution spiral continues to spiral upwards this year – for the fifth time in a row. This must come to an end, as must the constant subsidization of the federal budget by those paying contributions.” Instead of making empty promises, politicians should finally implement their own coalition decisions. On the revenue side, it is important to dynamize the tax subsidy for the statutory health insurance and to oblige the federal government to provide cost-covering financing for citizens’ benefit recipients. On the expenditure side, more attention should be paid to the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of supply. “A priority task for 2024 is therefore reforms on the income and expenditure side.”
At 5.8 percent, expenses in the GKV rose significantly more than income at 2.1 percent. This means they reach a record high of around 314 billion euros, an increase in spending of 17 billion euros from 2023 to 2024.
Social long-term care insurance needs long-term solutions
There are also no medium and long-term solutions in sight for social long-term care insurance (SPV). “Although the SPV is expected to close in 2023 with a slight surplus of two billion euros, that is not enough to finance the increasing care costs,” emphasized Klemens. The service improvements decided in 2023, such as the increased subsidies for personal contributions in inpatient care facilities, cost more money and the number of those eligible continues to rise. In 2022, almost 4.9 million people in the SPV were in need of care; in 2030, up to 5.8 million are expected. Klemens called on the coalition to finance the pension contributions for caring relatives of around 3.7 billion euros from federal funds and to repay the 5.5 billion euros pre-financed by the SPV for the corona protective shields with taxpayers’ money. In order to sustainably finance the SPV, private nursing care insurance also needs to be obliged to participate in the SPV through financial compensation. This alone could lead to relief of up to two billion euros annually.
Take the sustainability principle into account in reforms
As the largest type of health insurance, the replacement health insurance funds and the vdek are also committed to ensuring sustainable supply. In a resolution they have committed themselves to working in a climate-neutral manner by 2030 and are gearing their administrative actions towards improving the climate balance.
All actors in the healthcare system are called upon, said Klemens. It is important to take the sustainability aspect into account in all legislative proposals, especially when it comes to hospital reform. Incorrect and excessive care in the health system would also result in unnecessary waste of resources. “The German health system records an enormously high consumption of resources,” said Klemens. “We are all required to make our healthcare system climate-neutral in the foreseeable future.”
Current photos of the vdek association chairman for reporting can be found in our image archive.
The Association of Replacement Funds e. V. (vdek) is the advocacy group and service provider for all six replacement funds, which together insure around 29 million people in Germany:
– Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), X: @TK_Presse
– BARMER, X: @BARMER_Presse
– DAK-Gesundheit, X: @DAKGesundheit
– KKH Commercial Health Insurance Fund, X: @KKH_Politics
– hkk – Handelskrankenkasse, X: @hkk_Presse
– HEK – Hanseatic Health Insurance Fund, X: @HEKonline
The Association of Replacement Funds e. V. (vdek) was founded on May 20, 1912 under the name “Association of Commercial Registered Relief Funds (Replacement Funds)” in Eisenach. Until 2009, the association operated under the name “Association of Employee Health Insurance Funds”. V.” (VdAK).
The association’s headquarters with more than 300 employees is in the federal capital Berlin. In the individual federal states, 15 state representations in the state capitals with over 400 employees and more than 30 employees in the care bases ensure the regional presence of the replacement funds.