ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF HEALTH INSURANCE AT mtu

• 1915 – 2015: A century of worker welfare

FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, GERMANY – The company health insurance scheme (BKK) at Rolls-Royce Power Systems subsidiary MTU Friedrichshafen will be celebrating its centenary on Tuesday, 28 April, 2015. These celebrations will also commemorate the success of a concept that was born as far back as 1915.

The mtu BKK is one of the oldest company health insurance funds in Germany, and has a total of 5,000 members working at the Friedrichshafen, Duisburg, Hamburg, Ruhstorf, and Augsburg locations. Taking into account family members, pensioners, and other former mtu staff, the BKK provides health cover for some 16,500 people. "Now in place for over a century, the concept of company health insurance funds has proven its immense value – to company and staff alike – time and again. Preserving these schemes must be a fundamental aim of health policy," said Dr Ulrich Dohle, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems and President of MTU Friedrichshafen.

The origins of mtu's BKK go back to 1915, when two company health insurance schemes – one for airship manufacturer Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and one for Motorenbau GmbH, the predecessor company of mtu – were set up within the Zeppelin Group of companies with a joint administration. The purpose of the company health insurance scheme was employee support, and even then was intended as part of a broader social policy for worker welfare. When the war ended in 1945, company health schemes were dismantled and prohibited. Four years later, however, the prohibition was lifted, and company health insurance funds were re-introduced.

"It is notably the smaller, in-company health schemes that make an immensely valuable contribution to health protection and health care in the world of work. As the BKK of our funding company mtu, our mission is to preserve the workforce and its manpower as a valuable personnel resource. This way, we also make a long-term contribution to value-added," said Roland Dietz, head of the BKK at MTU Friedrichshafen. This year's health campaign, jointly run by mtu's BKK and the company health management company LIFE, is all about heart health. Staff at all German locations will be given the opportunity to undergo heart screening, attend lectures and presentations, and benefit from other initiatives taking place as part of the joint project 'Matters of the heart'.