It is true that more and more women are taking care of sick children in the household. But men are also becoming more and more active in this regard, according to data from some health insurance companies.
Erfurt (dpa/th) - In Thuringia, the majority of mothers remain at home to look after sick children. But the number of fathers who take care of sick offspring and receive child sickness benefit in return is increasing, according to some health insurance companies. According to data from the KKH Kaufmännische Krankenkasse, in the first half of 2022 it was almost 29 percent fathers who claimed child sick days. That was an increase of five percent compared to the same period last year, the cash register announced. In a country comparison, Thuringia's fathers were in first place with this value.
Other health insurance companies also confirmed the trend. On request, Barmer reported that in the first half of 2022 in Thuringia, 70 percent of the child sickness benefit days for those insured by the health insurance fund were attributable to women and 30 percent to men. Only in Saxony, at 33 percent, was the proportion of men higher than in Thuringia. In the same period of the previous year, women accounted for 69 percent of child sick pay days and men for 31 percent.
Among employed persons insured with DAK-Gesundheit, the proportion of fathers who apply for child sickness benefits in Thuringia is around 4 percentage points higher than the national average, which according to these figures was around 23.6 percent. From January to June 2022, 1,715 men applied for child sickness benefit, accounting for almost 28 percent of the total cases. In 1,491 cases, help was provided for the care of a sick child, in another 224 cases child sickness benefit was provided for the care of children caused by the pandemic if they were not allowed to go to kindergarten or school because of Corona.
The development of the health insurance company with the most members, AOK Plus in Thuringia, is different. There, the analysis of the available data showed that in the first half of 2022, exactly 28.84 percent of the cases in which child sickness benefit was paid were submitted by men. That was slightly less than in the same period last year, when the value was given as a good 31 percent.
