Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) stressed that a higher tobacco tax would help curb smoking. “It’s undisputed that higher taxes immediately affect consumption” she told the Funke Media Group’s Saturday newspapers. While the primary goal is to reduce tobacco use, Warken emphasized that the overarching aim is to raise the public’s health literacy. “For that we need comprehensive strategies” she added. She plans to launch a stakeholder process this year. Warken also criticised Germany’s weak performance in disease prevention, noting that this issue extends far beyond tobacco.
In the debate, the statutory health insurance association (GKV) argues that the additional revenue should be earmarked for health care. Oliver Blatt, the GKV Spitzenverband president, told the same newspapers: “Smoking is not only extremely unhealthy, it also generates huge downstream costs for our health system”. He said it would be “right and appropriate” to use a substantial portion of the tobacco tax proceeds to strengthen the health system. The statutory insurers could deploy the funds for medical care and targeted anti‑smoking prevention, potentially reducing lung cancer incidence.
A number of coalition politicians from the CDU and SPD have floated the idea of raising the tax, including federal drug commissioner Hendrik Streeck (CDU) and former health minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD).