German risk pool "fairer to funds":
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
The German lower house's (Bundestag's) decision to set up a risk pool within the Risikostrukturausgleich (RSA), the sickness fund balancing mechanism, has been welcomed by the AOK, the country's largest statutory health insurance fund. AOK chairman Dr Hans Jurgen Ahrens said that the risk pool, which would help distribute payments from richer to poorer funds, was an important step towards social fairness and quality control, whilst maintaining competition between the sickness funds. It would play an effective role in the contribution level developments in the German "city states", such as Hamburg and Berlin he said. Under the risk pool system of the RSA, funds would be reimbursed up to 60% of costs over the sum of DM40,000 ($18,300) per procedure.