Medicines and medical services are becoming more expensive for most Germans every year
As Russkaya Germania writes, in each individual case, personal expenses usually do not exceed ten euros for a referral to a specialist or clinic, and co-payments for prescribed medicines rarely exceed five euros per prescription. But all these fives and tens inexorably add up.
It turned out that over the past year, clients of the public health insurance system paid over 3.8 billion euros in co-payments for medical services – 220 million more than in 2014. At that time, expenses compared to the previous period hardly increased; in 2012 they were higher than the previous year, but partly because insurance companies still charged a quarterly fee of 10 euros for a visit to the doctor.
If we project the growing level of co-payments onto the regular contributions to health insurance, which most of the German population makes from their salaries or income, it turns out that health insurance in 2015 additionally became more expensive by 0.3 percent (with the usual 14.6 percent of salary plus additional fees that may vary slightly and regularly increase gradually). With this calculation, the average additional fee in Germany today is already not 1.1, but 1.4 percent of income.
Co-payments for medicines in each individual case do not exceed ten percent of the cost of the drug, but must be at least 5 and no more than 10 euros. Their total amount per year cannot exceed two percent of the insured person's income; for the chronically ill, the threshold is reduced to one percent. If one has to frequently use doctors' services and take many medications, experts advise collecting all cash register receipts and co-payment slips and demanding a refund from the insurance fund for overpayments. This recommendation is relevant not only for low-income workers who pay for health insurance on their own, but also for all those whose health insurance costs are taken over by social services.
Last year, according to the Ministry of Health, 5.2 million German chronically ill patients were exempt from additional payments – 150,000 fewer than the year before. At the same time, due to the improved labor market situation, the number of employed persons increased and, consequently, those who pay for their own health and pension insurance: compared to 2014, the number of insured in the German public health insurance system increased by 600,000 people and reached 53.7 million. At the same time, the relatively high growth in wages and tariff agreements led to many patients paying less than two percent of their annual income in co-payments for medical services and losing the opportunity to receive compensation for co-payments.
They, in turn, are rising everywhere. The largest share of insured persons' expenses – 2.2 billion euros in co-payments – falls on classic pharmacy products: medicines, drugs, dressings. The growing co-payments of Germans allowed hospital insurance funds to save 150 million euros. According to the Federal Union of German Pharmacists (Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Apothekerverbände, ABDA), on average, the co-payment for each pack of medicines or package of bandages increased by ten cents over the year, and the number of medications on the market for which the patient does not have to pay a co-payment has halved over the past four years.
The second largest type of expenditure for clients of the public health insurance system is stays in medical facilities. If no more than 28 days spent in the hospital accumulate per year, the German patient must pay ten euros for each day (it is believed that these expenses are offset by savings on food and living at home). Residents of Germany spent 750 million euros on hospitals last year.
Another 716 million comes from co-payments for various therapeutic aids and "non-medical treatment" – primarily, this category includes expenses for physiotherapist services. Co-payments made by patients in 2015 for preventive health measures and for emergency medical care turned out to be relatively low – 75 and 50 million euros respectively.