Recipients of citizen's allowance cost health insurance companies billions: "Ignored by politicians"

Merkur Recipients of citizen's allowance cost health insurance companies billions: "Ignored by politicians" Article by Max Schäfer • 2 hours • 2 minutes reading time Cost drivers in the system Providing care to recipients of citizen's allowance costs health insurance companies billions every year - because the state does not pay enough. This is one of the cost drivers in the health system. Berlin - Contributions to health insurance companies have only just increased. But the system is becoming more and more expensive, warned the head of Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), Jens Baas. "There is no end in sight," he told Focus. "The gap between contribution income and expenditure in the health system is widening. And politicians are doing nothing about it." One of the financial problems of statutory health insurance: citizen's allowance. One of the "flaws in the system" is that, for example, nine billion euros in costs are left to the health insurance companies every year with citizen's allowance - and thus also to the contributors, said Baas. So far, the state has already paid contributions to the statutory health insurance companies for every single citizen's allowance recipient - but these do not cover costs. Contributors to statutory health insurance companies pay for citizen's allowance recipients - privately insured people do not The health insurance companies received 100 euros as a contribution for each citizen's allowance recipient, explained the TK boss. "But we have costs of over 300 euros. Our members and employers then pay the difference of around 200 euros," criticized Baas in Focus. Those with private insurance were left out. "That is unfair, but politicians ignore it." Jens Baas, head of the Techniker Krankenkasse, criticizes too low contributions for citizen's allowance recipients as unfair, because those with private insurance were left out. The problem is known to politicians. In the coalition agreement, the traffic light coalition had set itself the goal of paying higher contributions for citizen's allowance recipients. In practice, however, there were no adjustments. The reason for the delay was the tight budget situation in the federal government. This is the result of a response from the federal government to a major inquiry from the Union faction. The MPs wanted to know how high the burden on health insurance was due to the non-cost-covering contributions for citizens' allowance recipients from tax revenue - and how the promise from the coalition agreement was to be implemented. Higher contributions for citizens' allowance recipients: Ministry of Health points to cash-strapped funds The response states: "In its recommendations for stable, reliable and solidarity-based financing of the statutory health insurance system [...] the Federal Ministry of Health recommends implementation as soon as the budgetary framework conditions allow it in the light of economic developments."