The top association of statutory health insurance warns the incoming federal government of a collapse of the healthcare system – unless a massive amount of money is pumped into the crumbling healthcare system. Association head Doris Pfeiffer said to the rnd: “The financial situation of statutory health insurance, which covers 90 percent of the population, is so bad that immediate action is necessary.” Therefore, she demanded more money: “In order to protect the contributors, we urgently need short-term measures to stabilize the finances.” However, she did not specify where the money would come from. It is unclear whether it would come from the recently approved “special fund” which is the largest new borrowing in the history of the Federal Republic, or further loans. It is clear, however, that taxpayers will have to bear additional costs. “Continuing like this in healthcare policy is not an option, because then the additional contributions will eventually skyrocket” warned Pfeiffer and criticized the new coalition’s ignorance of these facts, which only wants to address the issue in 2027: “We have record contribution rates, we have only seven percent of a monthly expenditure as a reserve, in the last two months there were six more contribution rate increases and the only response to this seems to be a commission that will only present its results in the spring of 2027.” Without “countermeasures” the contribution spiral will continue to spin and the financial burden for employers and insured persons will increase. “This cannot be afforded given the economic situation in Germany” warned the top insurance chief. That the demanded financial “countermeasures” will go at the expense of current taxpayers and future generations is neatly ignored. The numbers speak – anyway – a clear language: Last year, the deficit of the health insurers amounted to 6.2 billion euros. For the current year 2025, the estimator circle of the statutory health insurance expects revenues of the health fund in the amount of 294.7 billion euros. However, the expenses of the health insurers are expected to amount to 341.4 billion euros: This makes a record deficit of 46.7 billion euros. Therefore, the additional contribution rate will be increased by 0.8 percentage points to 2.5 percent. Only in January 2025 did the health insurance contributions increase on average to 2.5 percent, individual health insurers demanded up to 4.4 percent. DAK head Andreas Storm recently warned of hefty increases in contributions in the statutory health and long-term care insurance. In an interview with the Augsburger Allgemeine, he said: “If not compensated, then a contribution tsunami is programmed with this coalition agreement.” The new federal government apparently ignores these facts. Considering the disastrous handling of the former health minister and pharmaceutical lobby Jens Spahn (CDU) and the outgoing Karl Lauterbach (SPD) in the so-called “coronavirus crisis” this is not surprising. Alone for protective equipment, vaccinations and tests, 63.5 billion euros of taxpayer money was spent by the federal government, for so-called “compensation payments for provided bed capacities” in hospitals 18.5 billion euros.
President Pfeiffer Slams Union and SPD Proposals
