Adverse Selektion light – Der Einfluss des Flat-Rate-Bias auf das Tarifwahlverhalten bei Krankenversicherungen / Adverse Selection Light – How can flat-rate bias influence insurance demand

With the GKV-Wettbewerbsstärkungsgesetz in 2007, German public health insurance can offer insurance tariffs with a cost sharing. The insured at these cost sharing tariffs participates at the costs in the insurance case. In return, the insured profits from contribution refunds. An important result from the insurance theory says that the insurers manage to separate the good and the bad risks from each other and to solve the problem of the adverse selection by the choice of so-called separating contracts. However till now merely 1 % of the insured in Germany has chosen a cost sharing tariff instead of a tariff with full insurance. This observation could be led back on the so-called flat rate bias in insurance demand. Based on an empirical study under German insured we show that due to the flat rate bias the good risks still choose a tariff with a full insurance even though this rate is theoretically not optimal for them. Taking this into consideration, insurance companies must require higher premiums for full insurance and give more incentives for cost sharing tariffs in order to separate the good risks from the bad risks.