Germany’s parliament has approved sweeping cost-cutting measures for the statutory health insurance system, despite fierce opposition warnings about higher costs for patients and growing pressure on hospitals.
Higher co-payments for medicines, restrictions on free family coverage for spouses and partners, and capped reimbursements for doctors and hospitals are among the measures included in the coalition government’s controversial austerity package for statutory health insurance.
On the final day before the parliamentary summer recess, both the Bundestag and Bundesrat gave the reforms their final approval.
The opposition warned that the package would lead to a deterioration in care for Germany’s 75 million statutory health insurance members and could trigger a wave of hospital insolvencies.
Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) said the reform would “finally lay the foundation for stable finances in the statutory health insurance system”. She described it as a “herculean task” to stabilise premiums through the reform.
