The expenditures of statutory health insurers in 2025 rose far more than their contributions. According to preliminary statements, spending increased by 7.8 percent, while contribution receipts grew by roughly 5.3 percent, the Federal Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.
This imbalance has put significant pressure on the contribution rates, prompting insurers to raise their supplementary contribution rates sharply at the beginning of 2025. The 93 statutory insurers logged a surplus of €3.5 billion last year, but those profits are primarily being used to rebuild their financial reserves to the statutory minimum. By the end of 2025, the reserves stood at about €5.1 billion, equivalent to 0.18 months of expenditures-below the legally required minimum of 0.2 months.
“Provisional financial results underline the difficult situation in statutory health insurance” said Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU). “Since 2024, expenditures have risen far more than revenues, and this continues this year”. Warken noted that a measures package could stabilize the 2026 financial position, but funding gaps of double‑digit billions are expected from 2027 onward. She urged all healthcare stakeholders to play their part in sustainably stabilising contribution rates.
Specifically, statutory insurers collected €355.9 billion in revenue against €352.4 billion in spending. The average supplementary contribution rate at the end of December was 2.94 percent-well above the 2.5 percent break‑even rate announced for 2025. Many insurers therefore had to charge higher supplementary premiums to restore their reserves.