Private health insurance will continue to exist under the new federal government, and according to its own assessment it is bursting with strength.

According to a new study, the system contributed 41.9 billion euros to gross value added in Germany via direct, indirect and induced effects in 2019, 12.3 percent more than two years earlier.

At the same time, the number of jobs secured by this has risen by 5.3 percent to almost 743,000, according to an as yet unpublished study by the research institute Wifor for the Association of Private Health Insurance (PKV), which is available to the FAZ.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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According to their program, the SPD and the Greens actually wanted to introduce citizens' insurance in which private insurance would have had little space.

With the participation of the FDP in government, this radical cut does not come about now.

One argument of the proponents of private health insurance is always that it is worthwhile for the economy itself, also for those with statutory health insurance.

The new figures are intended to show that the effects extend far beyond the private health insurance market share of 10.6 percent.

On the one hand, the paper quantifies the so-called additional sales that are achieved compared to those with statutory insurance.

According to the data, they amount to 14.9 billion euros, which would finance 325,000 jobs.

This added value and jobs would not exist without private health insurance, states Wifor: "This means that privately insured persons are an important source of finance for equipping practices and hospitals and thus for medical care as a whole."

10 percent market share

The business activities of the private health insurance companies are examined separately. Direct, indirect and induced, they generated 7.7 billion euros in gross value added and provided employment for 88,700 people, the authors write. Every euro of added value results in an additional 1.90 euros in the economy as a whole. This “spill-over effect” is more significant than in the auto industry (1.80 euros) or in the information and communication industry (one euro). Labor productivity, at 182,300 euros per employee, is also much higher than in the other sectors at 148,300 and 111,400 euros.

Of course, private health insurance not only finances itself, but above all the health system.

In this field, Wifor has determined gross value added of 34.2 billion euros with 654,000 positions.

Here, every euro provided triggers an additional 1.10 euro in added value.

In the automotive industry, it is not even 0.70 euros.

In contrast to industry, the strong domestic added value and the high proportion of personnel-intensive services are to be rated particularly positively.

A direct comparison with the statutory health insurance is not possible because there are no figures on their economic "footprint", Wifor said.

That is why the "additional sales" of the service providers, such as doctors, are so important as an indication of the importance of private health insurance.

If you add up private health insurance as an industry with its role as a financier in the healthcare system, you get the aforementioned 41.9 billion euros and 743,000 jobs.

In 2019, the Federal Statistical Office put all health expenditure at 411 billion euros or just under 12 percent of gross domestic product.

Of this, private health insurance makes up 10.2 percent, which corresponds almost exactly to its market share.