Overview

• Nina Warken submitted draft measures targeting roughly €2 billion in 2026 savings for Germany’s statutory health insurance, moving the package into inter‑ministerial review.
• About €1.8 billion would come from technical hospital budgeting changes, including suspending the Meistbegünstigungsklausel, redefining caps for psychiatric and psychosomatic clinics, and capping state base case values using the national Orientierungswert.
• Further steps include capping certain administrative outlays to a maximum 8% growth versus 2024, cutting the Innovationsfonds by about €100 million, relieving sickness funds of its financing in 2026, and trimming €12.5 million from short‑term research and guideline funding.
• The ministry aims to bring the proposals to the cabinet around October 15 with legal changes planned to take effect on January 1, alongside imminent Schätzerkreis guidance deadlines for setting the average supplementary contribution.
• The plan remains uncertain due to coalition negotiations over long‑term care financing, potential reallocation of a planned €2.3 billion federal loan to nursing care that could force deeper health‑fund cuts, and pushback from insurers and social groups; higher patient copayments are not in this first package but are reported as not ruled out.