History of the AOK: 125 years of health insurance
The AOK’s history is indivisibly linked with the inception of social health insurance in Germany. As early as 1883, the first local health funds emerged as providers of health insurance for blue collar workers. Eleven years later, the first association of health funds was founded.
The Third Reich. In the mid-1930s, health provision, like all other areas of politics, was brought in line with Nazi ideology. Selfadministration of health insurance funds was replaced by state control. In 1948, the local AOKs regrouped to form the "Vereinigung der Ortskrankenkassenverbände" (Union of Local Health Insurance Fund Associations).
Dominant policy influence. In the post-war period, the AOK as Germany’s largest health insurance fund took on a key role in the shaping of health policy. Since 1987 the umbrella organisation of the AOK community has been known as the AOK-Bundesverband (Federal Association of the AOK). In the 1990s, the AOK embarked on the establishment of new regional AOKs in the five eastern states of the reunified Germany. At the end of 2008, the Federal Association of the AOK moved its headquarters to Berlin.