Overview

• A Green Party paper proposes using tax revenue to cover non-insurance tasks, repaying pandemic costs to the funds, and accelerating hospital and emergency-care reforms, with the GKV gap put at about €4 billion in 2026 and a €2 billion hole in long-term care.
• Health Minister Nina Warken backs efficiency steps and says she is prepared to consider cutting benefits, and she plans to bring a draft law to cabinet that would relax hospital quality criteria, drawing criticism from the Greens.
• The CDU Economic Council urges removing travel-to-treatment, most dental services, and work-commute accident coverage from collective financing while increasing patient cost sharing.
• Insurer and social groups, including vdek and the VdK, reject benefit cuts and call for structural changes and full tax reimbursement of non-insurance costs, with vdek welcoming funds’ lawsuit to recoup Bürgergeld-related expenses.
• Rising items intensify pressure, with travel-to-treatment costs around €5.2 billion in the first half of 2025 and non-prosthetic dental treatments totaling about €7.4 billion in the same period.