Approximately one out of every six individuals remains unprotected by the program.
German Health Insurers Face Criticism Over High Rejection Rates of Long-Term Care Applications
New data released by the Federal Ministry of Health and reported by the Funke media group has sparked controversy in Germany, with social policy expert Sabine Zimmermann of the Left Party criticizing the high rejection rate of long-term care applications by health insurers.
In 2019, a total of 142,000 appeals were made against the insurers' decisions, marking the highest number since 2011. This figure represents around one in six (16%) applicants for care services in Germany. The rejection rate for these applications was also similar in 2018, with a 15.2% rejection rate in 2018 and a 16% rejection rate in 2019.
However, the success rate of these appeals was around one in four (26.8%) in 2019, a slight decrease from the 28.3% success rate in 2018. The highest success rate was actually in 2018, while the highest number of appeals occurred in 2019.
Zimmermann accused health insurers of trying to save costs by frequently rejecting applications, which could lead to higher future costs due to the worsening of light care cases. She made her comments in the context of the data reported by the Funke media group and provided by the Federal Ministry of Health in response to a query by the Left Party.
The chairwoman of the Family Affairs Committee in the Bundestag also criticized the situation, stating that insured persons who have paid into care insurance for decades should not be left without benefits when they become care-dependent.
The data showed that the number of initial applications for care services was similar in 2018 and 2019, with approximately 1.22 million applications in 2018 and 1.21 million applications in 2019.
It is important to note that there are no specific publicly named executive employees of the health insurance companies identified as directly responsible for the high rejection rates of long-term care benefit applications in the available data.
Figures for 2020 are not yet available. It remains to be seen whether the trend of high rejection rates will continue or if there will be any improvements in the coming year.
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