Health insurance companies are predicting the biggest premium increase of all time next year. According to internal calculations by the organization of health insurance companies (BKK), reported by Handelsblatt, the additional contribution will probably increase from 1.6 percent to at least 2.45 percent next year.
Insured people pay this additional contribution at the basic rate of 14.6 percent. Therefore, the total tax would increase from 16.2 to 17.05 percent.
At least because health insurance companies only include current laws in their calculations. The hospital reform planned by Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) aims to reduce treatment costs in the long term, but is likely to increase them in the short term due to the necessary changes. Lauterbach is planning a billion-dollar transformation fund that will fill half the coffers. If this happens, contributions will likely increase even more significantly.
Additional health insurance contributions increase: hundreds of euros in additional costs
You can easily calculate what the change means for you using FOCUS's online gross-net calculator. Simply enter an additional health insurance contribution that is 0.85 percentage points higher than what you currently pay. If you don't know exactly how much you're currently paying, take 2.45 percent. Then compare the result with your current net salary.
- A household with two people with an average income (family income of 80,000 euros) pays around 250 euros more per year for health insurance.
- With two people with high incomes, the additional costs quickly rise to 300 euros.
- Below an income of 60,000 euros, the additional costs fall below 200 euros.
The number of children hardly influences the additional costs.
Here are some concrete figures:
New increases, experts warn, pose a danger to the economy
The background to the projected increase is that health insurance spending rose more sharply in 2023 than expected. According to the BKK, the average additional contribution should have been 1.81 percent instead of 1.7 percent, writes the newspaper Handelsblatt. Losses deplete cash reserves, so health insurance companies want to take urgent action.
The average additional contribution for compulsory health insurance has already increased in the last two years from 1.3 to 1.7 percent. If the increase occurs as planned by health insurance companies, this development will continue, but accelerate it again. With the next surge looming in 2025 (society continues to age), experts are increasingly calling on politicians to take action to curb the rise.
Since employers pay half of the health insurance contributions, the increase in contributions also makes work more expensive in Germany. This tests the already fragile competitiveness of the place.
Health Minister Lauterbach has already eliminated a funding program for more medical study places (worth around €660 million) from his plans. The health kiosks previously planned will also not exist for the time being. However, these measures alone will not reverse the trend toward increasing contributions.
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