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In the fierce competition for customers, health insurance companies attract customers with an expanded range of services in the form of additional insurance. Anyone who puts additional money on the table besides the base bonus should get something in return.
Helsana’s offer attracted so much attention that the health insurance company had to back down. In mid-October, it was announced that there would be a discount on the social benefits of insured people who took out the “Completa Extra” supplementary insurance. Instead of covering the full bill for health-promoting measures such as fitness or nutrition courses as before, it will now be 60 percent. The health insurance company generally no longer accepts new contracts for “Completa Extra”.
The performance was very popular
Helsana explains the reduction in the letter Blick received: “Insured people are receiving an unexpected number of benefits, especially in the field of health promotion.” Those who do not accept the changes can cancel at the end of the year.
Are you reducing a service because it is too popular with customers? This is a common practice among health insurance companies, according to Felix Schneuwly (63) of the price comparison portal Comparis. Because: “Such offers are often marketing tools to attract new customers,” says the health insurance expert. In addition to the Helsana example, he is primarily aware of similar cases when choosing a hospital. There too, insured people benefit from the service more than necessary.
Problem: If too many additional insured people benefit from this service, health insurance companies often cannot cover the costs. It was the same in Helsana with “Completa Extra”. In such cases, there is a risk that the Federal Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) will intervene. “It could force health insurance companies to increase premiums,” Schneuwly says. If the insurer wants to prevent this, the only option is to reduce the coverage.
When asked, a Helsana spokesperson even wrote: “Instead of increasing the premium rate, we decided to increase exemptions.” This means that insured people who do not benefit from the health promotion component are not affected by the measure. Helsana discussed the regulation with the supervisory authority.
There is no return on investment
It is surprising that Helsana is cutting back on health promotion. After all, healthy people are less susceptible to diseases and therefore cheaper for the insurance company. However, Helsana notes that health care and prevention are generally the responsibility of the individual.
“There are often years, if not decades, between health-promoting behavior and positive outcomes in the form of less disease,” Schneuwly explains. Therefore, it is difficult to calculate the real return of the health insurance company.
It is also likely that policyholders will change providers sooner or later. “Then the insurance company will of course not be able to benefit from the health-promoting measures in which it has invested,” says Schneuwly.
Source :Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
