BERLIN, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- In the latest development in Germany's struggle to reform its expensive social services, private insurers are promising to undercut some state rates.
Recent legal changes force Germany's public health insurers to charge a separate fee to insure their clients for some expensive dental work. A provision pushed by Christian Democrats allows private insurers to compete for that coverage, which they now say they plan to do quite vigorously, according to German newspaper Handelsblatt.
"We will be able to offer very favorable rates to clients who can verify that they have healthy teeth or have already had a full cleaning," private insurers association director Sybille Sahmer told Handelsblatt.
Public insurance companies, of which there are several in Germany, have not yet determined the rates at which they will offer the new insurance coverage, but say they are eager not to allow private insurers to lure away their healthiest -- and thus least expensive -- customers.
