(de-news.net) – Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) has presented a savings-oriented reform package for statutory health insurance centered on linking expenditure growth to revenue developments and prioritizing measurable benefit outcomes. Planned measures include cuts and structural adjustments in hospital, outpatient, and insurer spending, alongside changes to co-payments and spousal coverage rules. The government estimates savings of up to 20 billion euros in the coming year, with significantly higher potential under full implementation of an expert commission’s recommendations, and aims to advance the legislation shortly.
Warken offered her prospective savings package two weeks after the Financial Commission for Health’s report on stabilizing statutory health insurance contribution rates was released. According to her, the suggested measures were based on two fundamental principles: first, future pricing and reimbursement rate increases across all benefit categories would be linked to revenue developments, restricting expenditure growth to actual income trends rather than adopting flat reductions; second, this would lead to widespread cost-sharing among stakeholders in the health system. Second, she underlined that health spending must clearly produce value for patients, contending that policies that don’t satisfy this need will no longer be financially viable. According to Warken, in order to close the system’s deficit, all parties involved would have to contribute to fiscal consolidation.
The minister added that over three-quarters of the recommendations made by the commission would be carried out. The so-called preferential pricing clause in the hospital industry will be permanently eliminated, long-term care budget growth will be limited, and required second-opinion procedures will be gradually implemented. She suggested reducing health insurers’ administrative and advertising costs while doing away with extrabudgetary reimbursement for open consultation hours and referral-based cases in outpatient physician treatment. She calculated that these actions alone may result in savings of around 12 billion euros in the upcoming year, but she warned that this would not be enough without further payments from insured individuals and employers, whose involvement would avert even greater financial burdens under alternative scenarios.
According to Warken’s more comprehensive sketch of the reform trajectory, the implementation of the entire set of expert recommendations might result in savings of up to 40 billion euros, with a total savings potential of about 20 billion euros in the upcoming year. Additionally, the minister suggested raising pharmaceutical co-payments to between 7.50 euros and 15 euros, depending on package size, and narrowing the extent of spousal co-insurance in statutory health insurance while preserving exemptions for retirees and hardship cases. The idea that insurers must not exceed available revenues would strengthen spending discipline. Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that the government plans to present a legislative proposal for the reform package to the cabinet this month.
Audio: TTSFree
