Die Mitgliedschaft EG-ausländischer Versicherungsunternehmen im Sicherungsfond der Lebens- und Krankenversicherung

The present regulation of the German guarantee funds for life and health insurance offers no possibility for insurance enterprises from other memberstates of the EC to become a member of these funds. Whereas an obligatory membership for EC-foreign insurance enterprises would violate the single-license-principle for financial supervision in the EC, community law requires a possibility to become a member of the German guarantee funds on a voluntary basis. The absence of the possibility of such a voluntary membership in the German insurance supervision law leads to an inadmissible restriction of the fundamental economic freedom rights of the common market. Therefore, the German legislator has to add the possibility of a voluntary membership to his national regulation of the guarantee funds to secure an undistorted competition on the common market for insurance in the EC.     

Zur Bedeutung von Gentests beim Abschluß von Lebens- und Krankenversicherungsverträgen

The investigation deals with constitutional and insurance law problems of gene tests on completion of life and health insurance contracts. There are predominate reasons for the admissibility of a fundamental prohibition of predictive gene tests as a requirement of the completion of an insurance contract. Exceptions from the prohibition are only thinkable in special cases. Gene tests that were already performed should be allowed to be used by the insurer (only) if the insurer offers an expectancy insurance to the person affected. Furthermore the person must be informed about possible insurance related and legal risks before commencement of the test by the physician.     

Betriebsunterbrechungsversicherung bei kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen

The business interruption caused by a property claim is an existential risk both for large industrial companies and for small to medium enterprises (SME). It is especially relevant for companies working on a more complex sales and production infrastructure. Statistics show that in case of a large property claim the cost of the accompanying business interruption claim frequently exceeds the property claim. In Germany, however, the share of companies opting for business interruption insurance is much smaller than those opting for property insurance. This is especially true for SME that can hardly cover the risk themselves. The goal of this paper is to analyze the insurance decision for a business interruption policy with a special focus on SME. As a database we use the results of a representative survey among 1802 German SME with up to 100 employees. Our results show that the decision for a business interruption policy is not only dependent on hard factors such as company size and industry, but also driven by the so-called “insurance mentality”, which includes risk aversion, insurance know-how and price-sensitivity.     

Informationswert und Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse bei dispositiver EDV-Anwendung

Zeitschrift für die gesamte Versicherungswissenschaft -     

Zur Theorie und Praxis der Berechnung des effektiven Zinsfusses bei Anleihen

§ 1. Einleitung.

Die folgende Darstellung des in der Überschrift genannten Problems schliesst sich direkt einem Vortrage des Verfassers im schwedischen Aktuarverein am 2.2. 1939 an, in welchem er schon die Hauptresultate des § 3 mitteilen konnte.     

Die ökonomische Funktion von Haftungsregeln bei Risikoaversion und Haftpflichtversicherungsmöglichkeiten

Most of the literature on the economic analysis of liability law reduces the economic importance of liability regulations to their prevention or incentive function. This is due to the premise of risk neutral decision behavior or to the assumption of ?costless“ insurance that is very often used in this context. In this paper the case of risk neutrality is discussed briefly. Then the relevance of risk aversion is explained, and results are presented from an analysis which integrates risk averse behavior and employs a more adequate modeling of the insurance supply, such that the risk allocation function of liability rules is given emphasis in addition to the aspect of loss prevention. An important result is that for large numbers of potential victims an ideal solution can be approximated by a negligence rule. This insight is particularly interesting in light of the fact that liability risks which are characterized by large numbers of victims usually are regulated by strict liability.     

Versicherungsmedizinische Risikobeurteilung von pathologischen Leberwerten und aktuellen Entwicklungen bei der chronischen Hepatitis

Alcoholic liver disease, non alcoholic fatty liver and chronic viral hepatitis have a high prevalence in the German population. They are associated with significantly increased occupational disability and mortality. Elevated levels of GGT or ALT can be found in about 10 % of the general population. Attempts to identify an underlying diagnosis often remain unsuccessful. In selected cases CDT can be helpful to confirm or rule out suspected alcohol-abuse. Recent studies showed that non alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a potentially severe complication of diabetes and its metabolic precursors. Treatment options for chronic viral hepatitis get more and more sophisticated, but the rates of sustained cure are still unsatisfactory, especially in hepatitis B with negative HBe-antigen and the hepatitis C genotypes 1, 4 and 5. Life long suppression of HBV replication by nucleoside analogues seems to prevent liver cirrhosis, but may become a great burden on health costs. The risk assessment of HBV carriers and of patients with successfully treated viral hepatitis should rely on the expertise of experienced physicians.     

Sozial- und wettbewerbsrechtliche Konflikte bei der Fusionskontrolle in der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung in Deutschland

Since the Health Care Competition Act (Gesetz zur Stärkung des Wettbewerbs in der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung) came into effect on 1st April 2007, a significant consolidation process within the statutory health insurance (GKV) in Germany has begun, emphasizing the need for regulated merger control. The conflicts that currently exist between social law and competition law are limiting factors in this. This article examines in detail the existing conflicts and seeks possible solutions for regulated merger control in the field of the GKV that conform both to the regulations in social law and to the regulations regarding competition. On the basis of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, a solution scenario is developed which would eliminate the existing areas of conflict in GKV merger control almost without exception and which could even be applied in the field of private health insurance (PKV) in the case of an ongoing assimilation of GKV and PKV.     

Das Spannungsverhältnis von Unklarheitenregel und Transparenzgebot — insbesondere bei Allgemeinen Versicherungsbedingungen

The text deals with the relation of § 305c Abs. 2 BGB (contra proferentem rule) and § 307 Abs. 1 S. 2 BGB (transparency control) especially in terms and conditions of insurance contracts. The author demonstrates that the contra proferentem rule is a special rule for ambiguous standard terms and conditions that is of higher priority than the transparency control.     

Einsparpotenziale bei Verwaltungs- und Verfahrenskosten durch die Fusion von gewerblichen Berufsgenossenschaften — eine empirische Analyse für Deutschland

We analyze the cost savings potential with regard to administration and management costs by merging Commercial Employment Accident Insurance Funds (Berufsgenossenschaften) in Germany. We use data from the German Federation of institutions for statutory accident insurance and prevention (HVBG) for 1999 to 2004. Large Berufsgenossenschaften (BGs) have lower administration and management costs per insured person. However, costs per insured person are negatively correlated with insured risk of the BGs which in turn is an important source of administration and management costs.Results of a multivariate regression analysis help to identify cost drivers and the existence of economies of scale. Notifiable accidents, occupational diseases and risk explain administration and management costs. All estimation results are highly significant and allow to conclude that remarkable economies of scale are likely to be present in the organization of the BGs. Our results are robust to alternative specifications. Also, risk turns out to be an important cost driver with regard to management costs.A hypothetical policy reform is considered that reduces the number of BGs from formerly 35 to 18. We come up with an estimate of expected cost savings (without cutting benefits) of 83 million euros, about 10 % of the current management costs of the BGs under consideration.