BKK Firmus increases contribution – others are likely to follow

Financial emergency intensifies

The cheapest health insurance is becoming more expensive – and more are likely to follow

The BKK Firmus increases its additional contribution from May 1st – and it could not remain the last. Why threaten many increases in the middle of the year in 2025.

The contributions of statutory health insurance (GKV) increase – and no longer only at the turn of the year, as was common for a long time. More and more coffers are forced to turn the price screw in the middle of the year. From May 1st it will now meet BKK Firmus: The additional contribution increases from 1.84 to 2.18 percent for the cheapest nationwide open health insurance. Experts fear: This increase could only be the beginning.

The tense financial situation increasingly forces statutory health insurance to re -enact during the current year. As early as 2024, such unscheduled increases occurred unusually – and the trend is likely to continue in 2025.

“We have record contributions,” warned Doris Pfeiffer, CEO of the GKV Spitzenverband, in the “Wirtschaftswoche”. Nevertheless, the economic situation of the statutory health insurance companies is dramatic. Taken together, the reserves only made up seven percent of a monthly edition. According to Pfeiffer, this quickly forces the cash registers to increase. “In the past two months there have been six further increases in contributions, and the only answer from the prospective federal government seems to be a commission that should only present results in spring 2027.”

On average, since the beginning of the year, the health insurance companies have a contribution rate of 17.52 percent of gross wages – a good 1.2 percentage points more than in 2024. Despite the stable employment situation, the insurance is lacking billions. Responsible for this are increasing health expenditure and political decisions that bring new stress but do not ensure permanent counter -financing.

For example, it was decided that health insurance companies have to reduce their financial reserves instead of preserving them as security for bad times. According to the Federal Ministry of Health, the law on better general care, which passed the Bundestag in January, also leads to a “lower three -digit million amount” at additional costs among the statutory health insurance companies. The law raises the budget lid for general practitioners and is intended to lead to more patients.

However, the health insurance companies seem to be at the limit. With its renewed increase, the BKK Firmus exemplifies the misery of many health insurers: at the turn of the year it had raised its contribution by 0.94 percentage points, now there is another plus by 0.34 points. Within just four months, the total contribution increases by a total of 1.28 percentage points – together with the general contribution rate, 16.78 percent are now due. At 16.79 percent, the second cheapest nationwide open cash register, the replacement fund HKK, is only slightly higher.

However, there is also criticism of the procedure: “If a cash register like the BKK Firmus only corrects its contribution rate up four months after a strikingly low fixing, then it trickles and leads the contributors behind the light,” said Olaf Woggan, head of AOK Bremen/Bremerhaven. The goal of the abbreviations is to lure members away from others – under pretense of false facts.

Due to the increasing additional contribution, BKK Firmus is no longer one of the best health insurance companies for the “Finanztip” gunner. The only slightly more expensive HKK, for example, offers a better overall package.

The burden on the members has already increased in other health insurers. As of April 1, the BKK Salzgitter, the BKK Verbundplus, the BKK24 and the MHPlus BKK increased their additional contribution. Already on February 1, this was the case with the IKK and the Merck BKK.

Carola Reimann, chair of the AOK federal association, warned: “This is an alarming development that has not yet existed in the history of the SHI and makes the drama of the financial situation clear.” Reforms are unpopular, but necessary to make the supply more efficiently and needs -oriented.

In their coalition negotiations, the Union and the SPD had agreed to rely on a so -called binding primary medicine system. The family doctor serves as the first point of contact and only transfers to specialists if necessary. According to Klaus Reinhardt, President of the Federal Medical Association, such patient control could help “to use the scarce medical resources much more efficiently and to reduce the costs as a whole,” he told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.

From the perspective of the health insurance companies, contributors should be relieved by taking out so -called insurance benefits. This includes, for example, the contribution payments for citizens’ places. If the state were to transfer as much money to the health insurance companies as the actual costs of around ten billion euros a year, the contribution rate could easily decrease. Other options for improving the financial situation would be higher grants to the health fund or the promotion of prevention measures so that diseases do not arise.

Until political decisions are made, insured persons are not helplessly delivered to the trend towards multiple premium increases per year. Anyone who receives an increase in premium has a special right of termination – and should use it in doubt to secure better conditions. Depending on the income, insured persons can currently save up to 734 euros a year with a change. Read here how best to proceed.