Germany’s Coalition Party Rejects Proposal to Increase Contributions from High-Earners to Stabilize Health Insurance Funds
The German government’s coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), has proposed that high-earners contribute more to the statutory health insurance system to stabilize the funds’ financial situation. However, the opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has rejected the proposal, arguing that no one should be overburdened, not even high-earning skilled workers.
“We must ensure as a coalition that no one is overburdened, not even the well-paid skilled worker, who would have to shoulder the additional burdens” said CDU’s Vice-Chairman, Albert Stegemann, in an interview with the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
Instead of increasing contributions, Stegemann emphasized the need to fundamentally discuss the financing of the health insurance system and make it more efficient. The health insurance funds themselves are now calling on the German parliament to take action.
“It is a political decision whether high-earners or private health insurance policyholders should be more strongly involved in the solidary financing of the statutory health insurance system” said the spokesperson for the German Association of the Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband), Florian Lanz, in an interview with the RND.
The statutory health insurance funds would implement the political guidelines, Lanz said, but first, the parliament is required to act. “After all, it is about 90 percent of the population.”
Experts from the SPD and the Greens had previously advocated for increasing the cap on contributions and the threshold for health insurance coverage.
SPD’s Health Policy Spokesman, Christos Pantazis, had told the Bild newspaper that he was in favor of increasing the cap on contributions by around 2,500 euros, to a level similar to that of the pension insurance system, to stabilize the statutory health insurance funds.
The Greens’ Health Policy Spokesman, Janosch Dahmen, also agreed with the proposal.
The Left Party in the German parliament, however, would go even further, proposing that contributions be paid by individuals earning up to 15,000 euros per month, taking into account not just salary but also other income sources.
“It has been years of rising contributions for normal earners, while the new Health Minister is no longer ruling out cuts in services. More money for less service is absurd” said the Left Party’s Spokesman for Health Economics, Ates Gürpinar, in an interview with the RND. “Therefore, it is necessary for strong shoulders to be included.”
In the first step, the Left Party would increase the cap on contributions to 15,000 euros and include previously unaccounted income sources, such as rental income and dividends, in the calculation, Gürpinar said. At the same time, the party would also increase the threshold for health insurance coverage.