(de-news.net) – According to Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU), the Commission on Health Reform is expected to present its initial findings at the end of March. These proposals aim to curb rapidly escalating healthcare expenditures. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds has submitted its own plan – projecting annual savings of approximately 50 billion euros.
The 77-page document drafted by the association, to which RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland had early access, outlines over 50 measures, with major reductions targeted at hospitals, private practices, and the pharmaceutical sector. Insured individuals are not to face additional burdens, as the association identifies the system’s challenges primarily as expenditure-driven rather than revenue-related.
The proposal emphasizes eliminating economic disincentives and dismantling inefficient structures. Full implementation could reduce contribution rates by roughly 2.5 percentage points, thereby easing financial pressure on insured populations.
Concrete recommendations include capping hospital nursing expenditures, limiting automatic transfer of wage increases to insurers, abolishing supplementary fees for expedited appointments, and reintroducing budget ceilings for general practitioners and pediatricians. In pharmaceuticals, stricter price regulation and higher mandatory rebates from industry are proposed to strengthen cost control. Finally, the association calls for greater state responsibility, urging the federal government to provide cost-covering contributions for welfare recipients, finance training for health professions entirely through taxation, and apply a reduced value-added tax to medicines, in line with practices in other industrialized nations.
Without reform, contribution rates are projected to rise from the current 17.5 percent to 18.1 percent by 2027, reaching 19.1 percent in 2030 and 22.7 percent in 2040, according to the National Association. To counter this trajectory, the association advocates structural adjustments that align cost growth more closely with revenue development.
