Overview
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who raised the issue on Monday, said the coexistence of private and statutory health insurance is a "Gerechtigkeitsproblem" and signalled he is willing to consider changes to reduce unequal treatment.
- CDU leaders immediately pushed back on overhauling the dual system with CDU general secretary Franziska Hoppermann and Health Minister Carsten Linnemann insisting the government will keep private insurance and focus on patient steering and primary care reforms.
- Officials in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs are developing a Strukturausgleich proposal that would require private insurers to transfer funds to statutory long‑term care pools, with ministry documents discussing payments of up to €2 billion a year.
- Some CSU politicians, notably Emmi Zeulner, have backed Merz’s focus on equal treatment and endorsed a risk‑equalization payment to help strained care funds while the SPD has relaunched its long‑standing call for a Bürgerversicherung.
- The idea revives a plan first discussed in 2005 and rests on ministry data showing higher long‑term care needs among statutory insured people and frequent transfers of privately insured older adults into statutory care when private premiums rise, which supporters say would justify compensation.