Trend reversal: More and more people are switching to private health insurance

24.06.2020 13:57

“We are seeing a positive trend reversal. For the second year in a row, more people are switching from statutory health insurance (GKV) to private health insurance than vice versa. On balance, there was an increase of 17,400 insured people in favor of the PKV (balance 2018: + 800)," explains Dr. Ralf Kantak, Chairman of the Association of Private Health Insurance (PKV) at an online press conference.

Kantak continues: “In 2019, 146,800 insured people decided to switch from GKV to full PKV insurance. In the same period, 129,400 people switched to statutory health insurance, although many of these departures were not voluntary. In 2019, thousands of young people who had been privately insured since birth were forced to switch to statutory health insurance when they started working life. The same circumstance affected thousands of self-employed people who took up employment subject to social security contributions. This resulted in a negative bill of exchange balance between 2012 and 2017.”

For Kantak, the fact that almost 300,000 insured people switched between the two systems every year is evidence of effective competition. This motivated GKV and PKV alike to constantly improve in order to convince the insured. “The competition thus strengthens the quality of the German healthcare system – which has proven itself to be one of the best healthcare systems in the world, especially during the corona pandemic.”