Statutory health insurance urgently needs financial stability
04.09.2024 14:09
After the parliamentary summer recess, further discussions on hospital reform, which is to be implemented starting in 2025, are scheduled in the German Bundestag and Bundesrat. The financing of the EUR 50 billion transformation fund is particularly controversial.
The transformation fund for financing hospital reform stipulates that the federal states and health insurance funds will share the planned financial resources of EUR 50 billion for a period of 10 years, starting in 2026. This would mean an additional annual burden of EUR 2.5 billion for the health insurance funds.
The BKK Southern Regional Association today informed members of the Health and Family Policy Committee of the Hessian State Parliament about the hospital reform and the financial situation in the statutory health insurance (GKV) and the company health insurance funds that belong to the BKK Southern Regional Association.
Insured persons and employers are already feeling the strained financial situation in the statutory health insurance system very clearly. So far, in 2024, 24 health insurance funds nationwide have had to increase their contribution rates during the year. By comparison: In the period from 2015 to 2023, i.e. in the last nine years, there were a total of 26 mid-year contribution rate increases for the currently existing health insurance funds. These figures alone show how strained the financial situation is even without the planned additional burdens due to the hospital reform in the statutory health insurance system. The legally mandated reduction of financial reserves at the health insurance funds and sharp increases in expenditure on benefits leave the health insurance funds with no financial leeway. The additional burdens can only be offset by increasing contribution rates. A development that the BKK Southern Regional Association has also been warning against for a long time.
"If the federal government does not quickly provide financial relief with an immediate package of measures, as recently rightly demanded by the GKV umbrella association, the contribution spiral will continue to spiral upwards and reach further negative record levels in the 2025 federal election year. Additional contribution rates above 3 percent will no longer be the exception, but are likely to become the norm. And if the federal government continues its plan to pass on the costs of hospital reform to the health insurance funds with an annual EUR 2.5 billion, contribution rates that we have so far only seen in statutory pension insurance will not be unrealistic in the GKV," said Jacqueline Kühne, chairwoman of the BKK Southern Regional Association.
The provision of hospitals and their structural changes are part of the state's public services and must be financed through tax revenue. This is also confirmed by a legal opinion recently commissioned by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband) and a recent report by the Federal Court of Auditors to the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag.
"From the perspective of the BKK Southern Regional Association, hospital reform is extremely important and pursues the right goals. We believe that improving quality through specialization and specific care mandates for individual hospitals is the right path. In order not to jeopardize the reform, the federal and state governments must fully and permanently assume financial responsibility and provide the necessary financial resources," said Jacqueline Kühne.