(de-news.net) – A number of members of Germany’s governing coalition have reiterated calls for an increase in the tobacco tax, linking the proposal both to mounting public health challenges and to the increasingly strained finances of the statutory health insurance system. Federal Drug Commissioner Hendrik Streeck attributed more than 130,000 deaths each year to tobacco consumption and highlighted its substantial fiscal burden, estimating direct medical costs at over 30 billion euros annually, alongside approximately 70 billion euros in additional economy-wide follow-on costs. Against this background, Hans Theiss, a senior health policy spokesperson for the CSU, proposed raising the tobacco tax by two euros per pack. He argued that the resulting additional revenue could be used to finance a reduction in the value-added tax on prescription medicines from 19 to 7 percent, a measure that would simultaneously lower medication costs and ease financial pressure on the statutory health insurance funds.

While underscoring that fiscal instruments alone cannot address the complexity of tobacco-related harm, Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) emphasized that higher tobacco taxes are broadly recognized as an effective tool for curbing consumption. She pointed out that Germany performs poorly in disease prevention across a range of indicators extending well beyond tobacco use, and situated the tax debate within a broader policy framework aimed at strengthening health literacy and preventive capacity across the population. In this context, she announced that a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder process would be launched later this year, with the objective of developing more coherent and better-integrated prevention strategies.

The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds likewise expressed support for a tax increase, while calling for a clearer earmarking of the resulting revenues for health-related purposes. Its leadership argued that the substantial downstream costs associated with smoking provide a strong justification for directing a significant share of tobacco tax income toward medical care and targeted anti-smoking prevention programs. Such an approach, they maintained, would contribute to reducing smoking-related diseases, including lung cancer, over the longer term. The debate has gained traction across party lines within the coalition, with senior representatives from both the CDU/CSU and the SPD publicly endorsing a higher tobacco tax as part of a broader health and fiscal policy response.