Social choice: What the letters from pension and health insurance mean

Watson answers

Millions of households across the country are likely to have had letters from their health insurance and pension insurance in their mailboxes in the past few days. Content of the letters: The documents for the social election.

Insured persons can cast their votes until May 31st. Either by letter or, since this year, also online. The Federal Commissioner for Social Elections, Peter Weiß, hopes that the online voting option will result in a slightly higher turnout than in the 2017 social elections, when turnout was around one third.

This choice is more important than most policyholders realize. Watson explains why you should use your vote and not just throw the letter in the wastebasket.

You can decide who is a member

The social election is the third largest election in Germany. More people are only allowed to vote in the Bundestag and European elections. Around 52 million people in Germany are entitled to vote in social elections. You can choose who is insured with Techniker Krankenkasse, DAK-Gesundheit, Barmer, KKH or Handelskrankenkasse HKK. And the members of the pension insurance.

If you are insured with one of the health insurance companies and pay into the pension fund, you can even vote twice. Unlike in the Bundestag elections, minors can also vote, provided they are 16 years old and insured themselves. Apprentices for example. And citizenship doesn’t matter either.

You can decide who is a member. The idea behind it: whoever pays or has paid contributions should also have a say in how the insurance proceeds. But what is actually chosen?

The insured elect the highest decision-making bodies for health, long-term care, pension and accident insurance. In the case of the health insurance companies, this body is the board of directors, in the case of the other social insurance companies it is the assembly of representatives.

There are no people on the ballot paper, but The organizationwho want to send candidates to self-government. These are usually trade unions, but also church employee organizations or approved communities in which insured persons have organized themselves. Exactly which groupings are available depends on the respective replacement fund.

When choosing the pension insurance Among other things, the Verdi union, but also the interest group of insured persons and pensioners or the IG Metall are on the ballot.

Influence on policy decisions

These decision-making bodies have a powerful influence on the respective insurance company. Because the so-called insured parliaments draw up the budget. And they can elect the board of directors and the management.

They also decide on health insurance services or the quality of rehabilitation offers, bonus programs, optional tariffs or the inclusion of new early detection examinations. In short: They make fundamental decisions that affect all policyholders.

The health insurance companies in Germany have different focuses and orientations.Image: dpa-tmn / Alexander Heinl

This becomes concrete for insured persons, for example, when it comes to filing an objection or applying for disability pensions. The Chairwoman of the Board of the Association of Substitute Health Insurance Funds, Ulrike Elsner, points out that self-government alone manages an annual budget of around 300 billion euros in health insurance: “The course of the fund is determined by the self-government.”

influence on the programming

Because the elected representatives manage the money and make fundamental decisions, they have a great influence on the program of the insurance companies. This is shown, for example, by bonus programs and services that distinguish one health insurance company from the other.

In this year’s election, for the first time, there is a women’s quota of 40 percent on the health insurance companies’ election lists. The Federal Elections Commissioner Doris Barnett hopes that this will also better satisfy the needs of women. Because women would get sick differently than men.

Women need different treatments and different medications than men.Image: pexels / cottonbros

Of course, the different organizations that appear on the ballot paper have different approaches. That’s how it speaks Verdi For example, that insurers see themselves as service providers – the union calls for more customer friendliness and a strengthening of the pension system.

Die IG Metall speaks out in its election program for a radical change in the health system. Services would not only have to become more available, they would also have to be paid for by the cash register. A demand that probably also the members of the List of the Catholic Workers’ Movement and the Federal Association of Evangelical Workers’ Organizations. According to the election program, efficiency and supply must have priority over cost containment and competition.

Which organizations at which health insurance to stand for election can be looked up quickly on the website of the social election. There you will also find the concrete election programs, all lists.

(With material from the dpa)