| Abstract: | Private insurance and national social security insurance do not coexist unrelatedly. The constitution rather presumes a complementary co-operation of both branches of insurance. Whereas private insurance is based on the doctrine of privity of contract, national social security requires statutory legitimation. However, the principle of the bipolar insurance constitution restricts social security insurance to the effect, that it cannot expand unlimitedly at the expense of private insurance. This constitutional basis is reinforced by European Community law in Articles 49, 81 pp. EC. An essential difference between private and social security insurance is the fact that private insurance is characterized by the principle of personal equivalence between contribution and benefit payments, whereas in social security insurance this relation is determined by the principle of general equivalence. Consequently, the principle of solidarity in social security insurance is enriched by additional social components, the most dominant being the principle of social protection. Contrary to the developments of the last decades, social security systems are not designed as a legal scheme to protect a status quo of possession but should primarily serve to fight poverty. Thus, social security law should recall its absorbing function in the social network and rediscover, guarantee and realize the principle of subsidiarity in social security. |
