Overview

• General practitioners, patient advocates and the Verdi union reject a per-visit charge as socially unfair and likely to deter necessary care, especially for chronically ill and low-income patients.
• The BDA’s Steffen Kampeter floated a contact fee to curb perceived ‘Ärzte-Hopping’ and now defends it while pressing for broader cost controls such as hospital consolidation, stronger patient steering and more competition.
• Germany’s prior practice fee from 2004 to 2012 was scrapped after studies found little lasting steering effect and practices reported high administrative burden.
• Health economist Wolfgang Greiner proposes doubling prescription co-payments to 10 euros per medication, capped at 20 euros, which he estimates would roughly double co-pay revenues and leave some low-cost drugs outside reimbursement.
• The Bundesrechnungshof projects average additional contribution rates could climb from 2.9 percent in 2025 to 4.05 percent by 2029, as Greens demand overdue structural reforms and state health leaders call for a comprehensive redesign of statutory insurance.