DAK boss calls for broad alliance as Germany faces health insurance funding crisis

Storm calls for a broad consensus

DAK-Gesundheit CEO Andreas Storm has called on Germany's federal, state, and local governments to forge a joint agreement on limiting rapidly rising health and care spending. In an interview with the German Press Agency, he stressed that keeping contribution rates stable requires burdens to be distributed fairly and with social equity.

That has not been the case so far and must now be corrected.

Storm pointed to the ongoing conference of state health ministers in Hannover as the natural starting point for such an alliance.

In this way, the severe crisis of our social systems can still be jointly overcome.

Savings package details and resistance

The coalition government, in which the CDU leads, has tabled a savings package designed to relieve the statutory health insurance system by €16.3 billion in 2027 and avert further rises in supplementary contributions. Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) plans to impose spending brakes on doctors' offices, hospitals, and the pharmaceuticals sector, while also introducing higher co-payments for medications and curbs on the free co-insurance of spouses. Despite these measures, preliminary estimates indicate the deficit facing insurers in 2027 could swell by an additional €3.5 billion, creating a new financing gap. At the state health ministers' conference, which ends on Thursday, significant pushback from the Länder against the coalition's proposals has already surfaced.

Storm's specific demands

Storm insisted the newly identified funding hole must be closed without imposing further strain on patients.

This must not, however, lead to a further burden on insured persons and patients.

He demanded that the planned cut to the regular federal subsidy for the health insurance system be rescinded. In parallel, the federal government should significantly raise its contribution to cover healthcare costs for recipients of unemployment benefit II (Bürgergeld). For long-term care insurance, Storm proposed a temporary moratorium on regulatory changes in inpatient care. He suggested that the contentious issue of capping out-of-pocket expenses for nursing home residents be deferred. He also sharply criticized a provision in the coalition's plan that would reduce pension entitlements for family caregivers, arguing that it rightly finds no public acceptance and must be scrapped. Instead, he urged the federal government to assume the cost of pension contributions for caregiving relatives.

## Outlook

The Hannover health ministers' conference runs through Thursday, when Minister Warken is due to participate. With the states opposing central elements of the savings package and Storm warning that without action contributions could rise at the start of 2027, the federal government faces growing pressure to rework its draft legislation. A broad political consensus, Storm argued, remains the only way to tackle the systemic crisis.