The proposal by Green party’s top candidate Robert Habeck for the future financing of the statutory health insurance goes in the right direction, according to the CEO of the IMK, Sebastian Dullien. “Robert Habeck highlights an important point: above all, the statutory health insurance pays for many services that are actually societal tasks” the “Rheinische Post” (Wednesday edition) quoted Dullien as saying.
“For example, the premium-free insurance of children. Today, these tasks are all paid for by the employees who are insured in the statutory health insurance, who bear the burden of the contributions. People who live solely on capital gains do not contribute to this. These tasks should be borne by all people in the country. Therefore, it would be sensible to also include capital gains in the financing of these tasks” Dullien explained. “That’s what other countries like France do, by the way.”
However, one would have to think more precisely about how to actually include capital gains in the financing of these tasks. “Robert Habeck’s initiative goes in the right direction” Dullien said.
“The concern that a participation of capital gains in the financing of these tasks of the health insurance, mainly affects small savers, is misguided” Dullien explained. “First, the majority of capital gains in Germany go to the top 10%, and second, free allowances would exempt savings in the order of magnitude of the average household’s assets.