Andreas Gassen, chairman of the Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung, calls for the complete elimination of voluntary additional services provided by statutory health insurance funds to achieve savings. He estimates the potential savings at nearly one billion euros per year. This comes amid a looming financing gap of twelve billion euros in the statutory health insurance system.
Andreas Gassen, chairman of the Kassenärztlicher Bundesverband (KBV), demanded in an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) the abolition of all voluntary services provided by statutory health insurance funds. 'If there is not enough money for the catalog of services in the statutory health insurance and savings must be made, 'nice-to-have' services should be cut first,' he said. Gassen criticized that health funds want to reduce fees for psychotherapists while spending large sums on advertising-related offerings. He estimated the potential savings at nearly one billion euros annually.
These statutory services include offerings beyond the legal standard benefits, such as professional dental cleanings, homeopathy, anthroposophy, phytotherapy, subsidies for fitness courses, or fitness trackers. Such services are accused of using solidarity community funds for marketing purposes, with their medical benefit often questioned. In contrast, protective vaccinations for travel abroad or higher cost coverage for artificial insemination are considered useful. Only explicitly excluded services are prohibited, such as lifestyle medications like potency drugs or weight-loss injections.
Most recently, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) failed in an attempt to exclude cost coverage for homeopathy, partly due to resistance from the Greens; this would have saved around 50 million euros annually. The federal government plans to reform the statutory health insurance to limit rising costs and avoid contribution increases. Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) has appointed an expert commission that is to present proposals for short-term savings by the end of March. Discussions include higher co-payments for insured persons as well as cuts to the pharmaceutical industry, medical profession, and clinics. Further-reaching reforms are to follow by the end of 2026. The statutory health insurance faces a gap of twelve billion euros for the coming year.
