consumer
Contributions and benefits: These are the best health insurance companies
| Reading time: 4 minutes
Five facts about continued pay
Five facts about continued pay
Anyone who is ill or unable to work is entitled to continued payment of wages. But there are rules and obligations that every employee should know.
show description
Many health insurance companies have increased their contributions. But a change is not always worthwhile. These funds offer policyholders the most.
Berlin. In January it is always exciting for those with statutory health insurance: will it be more expensive and how much? Traditionally, many health insurance companies increase the at the turn of the year additional contribution. This year there are particularly many – 66 of the 97 statutory health insurance companies. Around 47 million insured persons are affected.
Some of them may not notice the price increase until their payslip at the end of January – or not at all. Because unlike usual, they have to health insurance companies do not inform the insured by letter if they increase the contributions in the first half of 2023. A note in the members’ magazine or on the cash register’s website is sufficient. According to the Federal Ministry of Health, this exemption is intended to save the health insurance companies postage and administration costs. The insured look into the tube.
Health insurance: This is how much the contributions have increased in 2023
How much more cash patients now have to dig into their pockets depends on their income and health insurance. On average, the additional contribution is over 0.3 percentage points gone up. With an income of 4000 euros gross per month, that makes 144 euros more per year. However, there are also insurance companies that have increased their additional contribution even more. The range between expensive and cheap health insurance companies is large: while the BKK VBU, for example, has an additional contribution of 1.8 percent, it is only 0.9 percent for BKK Firmus and BKK Gildemeister-Seidensticker.
employees and Pensioner pay only half of the health insurance contribution, the rest is covered by the employer or the pension insurance. The savings potential when choosing a health insurance company is therefore particularly large for the self-employed.
If you are not sure how expensive your own health insurance up-to-date can search for the additional premium on the insurance company’s website. If you don’t find what you’re looking for there, the money guide Finanztip will help you with one Overview, which shows which funds have increased their contribution and which have not.
Read here: Get out of the overdraft facility: what consumers should do
Higher premiums: when it makes sense to change health insurance
Insured persons who are dissatisfied with the price, the service or the willingness to perform of their own health insurance company should have a change think. It is not only the amount of the additional contribution that is interesting. More can be saved under certain circumstances with suitable extras.
For example, if you regularly go to yoga or back training, you can save several hundred euros for this and other health courses grant get a year – provided he or she chooses the right health insurance company. Expensive travel vaccinations, for example for long-distance travel, are also covered by many insurance companies, as well as additional cancer screening tests or extras for expectant mothers. Insured persons who go to professional teeth cleaning every year also receive a subsidy from some health insurance companies – 80 to 100 euros are definitely in it.
Also interesting: Fighting over money – This brings couples a joint account
Comparison: These cash registers perform well in terms of price and performance
The Geld-Ratgeber Finanztip determines every year in a comprehensive comparison nationwide health insurance companies with particularly good Price-performance ratio. For the current study, the Finanztip editors considered 30 characteristics from eight categories: contribution, range of services, preventive care, teeth, pregnancy and children, alternative healing methods, bonus program and transparency.
Im Financial tip comparison has the HKK as in the previous year, by far the best. Not only did it score points with a cheap fee, it also offers a wide range of additional services. Germany’s largest health insurance company, the Technician (TK). It achieved the highest rating in the service offering category and is comparatively cheap. They also made it into the top group of the comparison HEK and Energy BKK.
Change health insurance: special right of termination in the event of an increase in contributions
the change of register is quite easy. Insured persons simply register with a new provider of their choice. Most health insurance companies can do this on their website, for example. The new cash register then takes care of the remaining formalities and lets you know whether the change has worked.
Anyone who received a contribution increase at the beginning of the year has one by the end of January special right of termination. However, this is only relevant for people who have only recently switched funds. Anyone who has been with their previous fund for at least twelve months can switch at any time with a notice period of two months to the end of the month. Insured persons who are still looking for a new health insurance company in January can therefore enjoy more extensive services from April.
This article appears in cooperation with finanztip.de. The money guide for consumers is part of the Finanztip Foundation.
