The German government is set to allocate billions of euros to stabilize the social insurance funds in the upcoming year, according to a draft of the federal budget for 2025 reported by the news outlet POLITICO on Monday.
The health insurance fund is expected to receive a “multi-year loan of 2.3 billion euros” to stabilize the contribution rate of the statutory health insurance (GKV). Meanwhile, the social long-term care insurance (SPV) will receive an additional “multi-year loan of 0.5 billion euros from the federal budget” to balance its accounts.
The move comes in response to significant deficits in the social insurance funds. The GKV reported a deficit of 3.7 billion euros in the health insurance fund in 2024, with the health insurance companies holding only 2.1 billion euros in reserves at the end of the year, less than half of the minimum reserve of 0.2 months of expenses as prescribed by law. The SPV also closed the year with a deficit of 1.54 billion euros.
The average supplementary contribution in the GKV is set to rise to 2.5 percent in 2025, while the contribution rate in the long-term care insurance was increased to 3.6 percent at the beginning of the year.