Ferdinand Gerlach, the Vice Chairman of the Financial Committee for Health, has rejected the demand for politically mandated consolidation of health insurance funds. Speaking to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”, Gerlach characterized the push for a faster reduction of these funds as an “uninformed populist demand,” asserting that a smaller number of funds would not have any relevant influence on contribution rates within statutory health insurance.
According to the expert, such concentration is already underway. Presently, a few large funds collectively hold a market share of over 80 percent. Gerlach cited experiences from Austria, warning that reducing the number of health funds can diminish competition for favorable contribution rates and even lead to rising administrative costs.
He pointed out that the combined administrative costs for all statutory healthcare funds currently amount to just under four percent of total expenditures. Furthermore, the salaries of all 93 board chairmen combined represent only 0.005 percent of these costs. Gerlach noted that the number of statutory health insurance providers has already declined significantly, falling from over 1,100 at the beginning of the 1990s to the current figure of 93. He concluded that there is no observable correlation between the size of a health insurance fund and its administrative costs per insured person.
