Every few years, politicians discuss compulsory universal healthcare and thus the abolition of private health insurance.
There are two possible scenarios, should a universal healthcare system actually be introduced. In the first scenario, comprehensive private health insurance would be completely abolished and all existing policyholders would be transferred to the universal healthcare system. Or in the second scenario, which seems to be more likely, new customers would not be able to take out comprehensive private health insurance. Existing customers would be allowed to stay.
Instead of speculating about the likelihood of the two scenarios, we prefer to show you what implications universal healthcare would have for ottonova policyholders.
Scenario 1
If you subscribe to an ottonova policy today, and in 10 years' time all private policyholders are obliged to switch to universal healthcare, the end result would be the same as if you had never been insured with us. Since private health insurance is usually cheaper when you are younger, not only would you have received better coverage during these 10 years; you would also have saved on premiums. ottonova would continue to exist as a company and would focus on the sale of supplementary insurance packages. You could even transfer your accumulated old-age provisions to a supplementary insurance policy.
Scenario 2
If it is only new customers who are not allowed to take out comprehensive private health insurance, this would have no negative impact on you and your insurance cover with ottonova. Your coverage would still be guaranteed. ottonova would continue to exist, and existing policies would not be terminated. In this scenario, there would be no new policyholders. This, however, would not have any negative impact on your premiums. After all, in private health insurance – unlike in public health insurance – everyone provides for themselves. In this case too, ottonova would continue to sell supplementary insurance packages. As a result, we would continue to grow as a company and expand our services for all policyholders.