Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – From January 1, 2023, civil servants should be able to insure themselves more easily with a statutory health insurance company. The green-black coalition has agreed to introduce a flat-rate subsidy as an alternative to individual subsidy in health insurance. This was confirmed by the Greens faction on Thursday of the German Press Agency in Stuttgart. So far, the state has not paid any employer contributions to statutory health insurance for civil servants. This means that civil servants who are voluntarily insured by law have to shoulder all the contributions themselves. In the future, the state will take over this share. Baden-Württemberg is the sixth federal state to participate in the financing of the statutory health insurance funds.
The country expects additional expenditure of 13.8 million euros per year. However, this sum will increase by around three million euros annually, according to the estimate. So far, only a fraction of the 190,000 civil servants are legally insured, namely 1369. Of the pensioners, 2641 are with the statutory health insurance fund.
The question is for which officials the statutory health insurance would be attractive. Contrary to statutory health insurance, the contributions for private health insurance are not based on income but on the age at which you joined and your state of health. Above all, civil servants with low and middle incomes as well as part-time civil servants would be burdened disproportionately.
Green parliamentary group leader Oliver Hildenbrand was pleased that Baden-Württemberg is now also following the Hamburg model. “By introducing a flat-rate subsidy, we are creating more freedom of choice and more justice.” The Greens finance expert Markus Rösler explained that the introduction of the flat-rate subsidy underlines “the role of the state as a good employer”. The new offer is primarily aimed at those who are new to public service or who already have voluntary statutory health insurance.
