Health insurance companies: Strong increase in child sickness benefit applications

Both Techniker Krankenkasse and Barmer registered a sharp increase in applications for child sickness benefits last year.

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Schwerin. In 2021, the health insurance companies Techniker (TK) and Barmer received significantly more applications for child sickness benefit in the north-east than in the previous year. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the number of applications rose from 21,300 to 38,500 applications year-on-year, a sixth of which is attributable to the Corona child sickness benefit introduced at the beginning of last year, according to the TK in Schwerin on Friday. Barmer only has data up to and including November, but according to the insurance company, with more than 90,700 days of child sickness benefit, an increase of more than 85 percent in relation to the year 2020 as a whole can already be seen.

According to TK, parents made use of the possibility of Corona child sickness benefit, especially in the first half of 2021. “This coincides with reports from pediatric practices about increased virus infections in the summer months of 2021,” said Manon Austenat-Wied, head of the TK state representation in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The insurance company attributes the strong increase compared to the previous year to the particularly low number of applications in 2020. Accordingly, there was a lockdown effect in the first year of Corona: Since the parents had worked from home anyway, less sick pay was applied for. In addition, TK referred to the overall lower number of other illnesses in children in 2020 due to the contact restrictions and hygiene measures.

On the basis of her data, Barmer also drew conclusions about the division of labor among parents: “The imbalance in families is still evident when it comes to child sickness benefits.” Accordingly, in more than 2 out of 3 cases, child sickness benefits were applied for by women in Barmer insurance in this country.

Apart from that, Barmer country manager Henning Kutzbach thinks a lot about the service: “Children’s sick pay is proving to be a real relief for parents in the corona pandemic. They can use it to better cushion the burden when their child is ill or due to pandemic-related measures such as school and daycare closures must be taken care of.”

Since the beginning of 2021, parents with statutory health insurance have been able to apply for 30 days of child sickness per parent (60 days for single parents) with reference to the consequences of the pandemic. If there are several children, the extended entitlement to 2022 increases to up to 130 working days for single parents (65 each for two parents).