The Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary group does not intend to fully support the reform proposals put forth by Health Minister Warken in their current form. Dagmar Schmidt, the SPD’s deputy parliamentary group chair, responded to whether her party would simply accept the plans, stating, “No, of course not”. While she acknowledged, “there is a lot of good in it, a lot that we also share” she added that there are “things where we find that the proposals are simply not yet in the balance where we would actually like to see them” speaking to the broadcasters RTL and ntv.
Schmidt positively viewed the approach of aligning expenditures more closely with revenues, noting, “What we share is that we fundamentally want an expenditure policy oriented towards revenue”. However, she pointed out that Germany operates one of the most expensive healthcare systems in the world, and the most expensive in the European Union, despite offering only moderate quality of care to its citizens. She emphasized that “there are incredible efficiency reserves that we want to tap into”. Consequently, she stated, “We do not want insured people to continue being burdened, or their benefits to be cut-this is where the SPD sees an imbalance”.
At the same time, Schmidt made it clear that savings are necessary, but they must not come at the expense of the insured population. She stated that everyone will have to contribute, referring to “outpatient areas, inpatient areas, and the pharmaceutical industry”. She argued that since insured individuals have paid billions in recent years to cover cost increases, it is unrealistic to expect them to bear the burden now through benefit reductions or additional charges. According to her, there are sufficient possibilities, adding that “the commission’s proposals are so broad and diverse that we have alternative options”.