A smile at the wrong time
Health insurance premiums are on everyone's mind, except for the health insurance companies' advertising
Health insurance premiums are on everyone's mind, except for the health insurance companies' advertisingBy Ernst Weber Because the premiums for compulsory health insurance have been an increasing burden on policyholders for years, the image of health insurance companies is crumbling more and more. But instead of using communication to correct this image, this year's fall appearances by the health insurance companies are once again presenting an ideal world.
The healthcare system is in a bad way. Six years after it came into force and two years after the first partial revision of the Health Insurance Act (KVG), all therapeutic approaches to curb costs, which have been spiralling for years, have not achieved the desired results. Basic insurance premiums continue to rise by around 10 percent per year.
Serge Ganz, member of the Seniors' Working Group for Justice and Solidarity in Healthcare, explains: "The premiums are reaching a level that many people can no longer cope with."
The cost increase not passed on in full
According to the statistics of the Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO) on health insurance in 2000, the benefits paid by health insurers increased by 5.9% between 1999 and 2000. Depending on the administrative costs, which vary from fund to fund, between 93 and 95% of this amount was spent on payments to insured persons. 24.9% of all benefits went to doctors, 34.6% to hospitals, 20.9% to medicines, 9.5% to nursing care costs and 10.1% to other services such as physiotherapists, chiropractors and laboratories.
The health insurers unanimously affirm that basic insurance premiums "are a reflection of healthcare costs". As inflation is not passed on in full to policyholders, basic insurance has already been in deficit for years and compensating for the deficit, which has to be financed from reserves, is a real challenge.
"Our lemon has been squeezed," says Christian Beusch, Head of Corporate Communications at Helsana, for example, where basic insurance premiums account for around 70% of the total premium volume.
The health insurance companies' advertising is closed to the problem
What is striking now, shortly before this year's deadline for switching health insurers, is that although insurers are not the sole cause of constantly rising basic insurance premiums and the trend is obviously damaging their image, the problem has so far hardly featured in their advertising.
In order to appeal to new policyholders or policyholders who are about to switch insurers, the current fall campaigns show the same wholesome imagery as ever. Not one syllable of the campaigns gives the viewer the feeling that the insurers want to make a constructive contribution to curbing costs. And there is also no subject to be seen that attempts to motivate policyholders to refrain from hasty medical consultations.
The Lucerne health insurance company Concordia, for example, is advertising its conciliatory approach in a poster campaign. The motifs of the reference campaign designed by Ottiger & Partner, Reussbühl LU, show smiling policyholders who are clearly completely satisfied with the services provided by their insurer. The slogan "Life happens" underpins the insurance company's willingness to pay.
Even more light-hearted is a TV commercial by the Zolliker agency Pinx, which is intended to reinforce the family positioning of CSS health insurance. Accompanied by an emphatically sweet soundtrack, the film, which advertises student accident insurance in the appendix, tries to give the viewer the impression that CSS is the insurance company for all phases of life by jumping back and forth in time. Verbally, the positioning was implemented with the phrase "Security for every generation".
Only the health insurance company Atupri could be said to be indirectly addressing the problem in an ironic way. At the center of its autumn appearance is the clown Linaz, the same identification figure who communicated the renaming of the health insurance company SBB to Atupri in the branding appearance at the beginning of the year. While Linaz wore boxing gloves back then, in the current appearance a fair beauty is now pressing a victory kiss on his cheek. The headline "Atupri has many friends" explains how the reward came about.
The Federal Council intervenes in the recovery process
Politics stands between the "reality" of the health insurance fund administrators and the advertising campaigns. The Federal Council is also aware that the plight of the healthcare system must soon come to an end. At a closed meeting in Ittingen TG on May 22, it decided to reform health insurance in three stages as part of the ongoing second partial revision of the KVG.
According to the FSIO, the first short-term reform steps are
For example, working towards "better management of service volumes and the assessment of controversial services are important objectives". In future, for example, doctors should prove the relevance of an intended therapy by obtaining a second opinion.
In the medium term, for example, the Federal Council wants to support "the principle of a statutory social target for individual premium reductions". However, as it did not consider the premium burden ratio of 8% of income adopted by the Council of States to be suitable, it proposed a graduated model that is more compatible with the proposals made as part of the reorganization of financial equalization.
According to Marie-Therese Furrer, economist in the Tariffs and Service Providers department at the FSIO, proposed longer-term reform steps that would result in a major change to the system "will probably only be resolved in a third partial revision".
Ad Rating
The healthcare system is in a bad way. Six years after it came into force and two years after the first partial revision of the Health Insurance Act (KVG), all therapeutic approaches to curb costs, which have been spiralling for years, have not achieved the desired results. Basic insurance premiums continue to rise by around 10 percent per year.
Serge Ganz, member of the Seniors' Working Group for Justice and Solidarity in Healthcare, explains: "The premiums are reaching a level that many people can no longer cope with."
The cost increase not passed on in full
According to the statistics of the Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO) on health insurance in 2000, the benefits paid by health insurers increased by 5.9% between 1999 and 2000. Depending on the administrative costs, which vary from fund to fund, between 93 and 95% of this amount was spent on payments to insured persons. 24.9% of all benefits went to doctors, 34.6% to hospitals, 20.9% to medicines, 9.5% to nursing care costs and 10.1% to other services such as physiotherapists, chiropractors and laboratories.
The health insurers unanimously affirm that basic insurance premiums "are a reflection of healthcare costs". As inflation is not passed on in full to policyholders, basic insurance has already been in deficit for years and compensating for the deficit, which has to be financed from reserves, is a real challenge.
"Our lemon has been squeezed," says Christian Beusch, Head of Corporate Communications at Helsana, for example, where basic insurance premiums account for around 70% of the total premium volume.
The health insurance companies' advertising is closed to the problem
What is striking now, shortly before this year's deadline for switching health insurers, is that although insurers are not the sole cause of constantly rising basic insurance premiums and the trend is obviously damaging their image, the problem has so far hardly featured in their advertising.
In order to appeal to new policyholders or policyholders who are about to switch insurers, the current fall campaigns show the same wholesome imagery as ever. Not one syllable of the campaigns gives the viewer the feeling that the insurers want to make a constructive contribution to curbing costs. And there is also no subject to be seen that attempts to motivate policyholders to refrain from hasty medical consultations.
The Lucerne health insurance company Concordia, for example, is advertising its conciliatory approach in a poster campaign. The motifs of the reference campaign designed by Ottiger & Partner, Reussbühl LU, show smiling policyholders who are clearly completely satisfied with the services provided by their insurer. The slogan "Life happens" underpins the insurance company's willingness to pay.
Even more light-hearted is a TV commercial by the Zolliker agency Pinx, which is intended to reinforce the family positioning of CSS health insurance. Accompanied by an emphatically sweet soundtrack, the film, which advertises student accident insurance in the appendix, tries to give the viewer the impression that CSS is the insurance company for all phases of life by jumping back and forth in time. Verbally, the positioning was implemented with the phrase "Security for every generation".
Only the health insurance company Atupri could be said to be indirectly addressing the problem in an ironic way. At the center of its autumn appearance is the clown Linaz, the same identification figure who communicated the renaming of the health insurance company SBB to Atupri in the branding appearance at the beginning of the year. While Linaz wore boxing gloves back then, in the current appearance a fair beauty is now pressing a victory kiss on his cheek. The headline "Atupri has many friends" explains how the reward came about.
The Federal Council intervenes in the recovery process
Politics stands between the "reality" of the health insurance fund administrators and the advertising campaigns. The Federal Council is also aware that the plight of the healthcare system must soon come to an end. At a closed meeting in Ittingen TG on May 22, it decided to reform health insurance in three stages as part of the ongoing second partial revision of the KVG.
According to the FSIO, the first short-term reform steps are
For example, working towards "better management of service volumes and the assessment of controversial services are important objectives". In future, for example, doctors should prove the relevance of an intended therapy by obtaining a second opinion.
In the medium term, for example, the Federal Council wants to support "the principle of a statutory social target for individual premium reductions". However, as it did not consider the premium burden ratio of 8% of income adopted by the Council of States to be suitable, it proposed a graduated model that is more compatible with the proposals made as part of the reorganization of financial equalization.
According to Marie-Therese Furrer, economist in the Tariffs and Service Providers department at the FSIO, proposed longer-term reform steps that would result in a major change to the system "will probably only be resolved in a third partial revision".
Ad Rating
Concordia campaign Have you ever read the ad raters' comments on the leuven pictures? The air is really shimmering in the savannah heat. I wonder if the colleagues will have more fun with the Concordia campaign - with the rising premiums? Please click on www. werbewoche.ch/adrating for more information.
Bank Leu campaign
Top: 23,11%
Flop: 76,89%
Praise and criticism of ad-raters summarized at www.werbewoche .ch/adrating/comments
