In response to last week's Finance Commission on Health report, German Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) plans to implement only select proposals. She rejects abolishing free co-insurance for childless spouses under six years old and advocates exemptions for caregiving relatives.
Following the commission's presentation of 66 savings proposals to address looming coverage gaps, Warken stated she will not adopt them one-to-one. "I will not implement the commission's proposals one-to-one," she told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
She opposes eliminating free co-insurance for spouses without children under six. "Caregiving relatives provide such an important contribution that I find it hard to justify burdening them," Warken said, calling for their exemption.
Warken backs other commission ideas, including cutting unprompted skin cancer screenings, higher drug co-payments, and abolishing a special doctor fee. She dismissed doctors' threats of resistance: "It cannot be that when saving, we always just point to others."
Showing understanding for the pharmaceutical industry amid US tariff threats, she also urged less bureaucracy. The contribution stabilization law is slated for cabinet decision before summer break.
