Overview
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that the co-existence of private and statutory health insurance is seen by many as a justice problem and that the issue needs to be discussed publicly.
- A Merz spokeswoman and Union parliamentary leaders quickly clarified that the chancellor did not call for abolishing private insurance and that ending the dual system is not government policy.
- The SPD welcomed Merz’s remark as an opening to discuss deeper reform, including its long-standing proposal for a Bürgerversicherung, while Green and left-leaning politicians urged concrete steps rather than rhetoric.
- Health economists and legal experts say a full abolition of private health insurance is effectively impractical in the near term, with one estimate that winding down PKV could take decades and a realistic first step would be closing it to new customers.
- Immediate policy work is focusing on operational fixes such as a tagesaktuelle appointment platform, stronger primary-care steering and measures to cushion effects of the GKV‑Beitragssatzstabilisierungsgesetz, which will cut ambulatory funding and likely raise co-payments for statutory insureds next year.