Federal Health Minister Warken Revises SHI Savings Package – Relief for Insureds and Pharmaceutical Industry in New Draft

Specifically, the planned co-payments for medications and hospital stays are to be lower than initially envisaged. In addition, the federal government's payments for the health costs of basic income support recipients could be raised more sharply than previously planned. Regarding pharmaceutical manufacturers, there is also a focus on replacing a dynamically adjustable price discount with a constant supplementary discount.

Less Burden on Insureds

A change of course is also emerging on the issue of co-insurance of spouses. Spouses or life partners previously co-insured free of charge are to be required to pay additional contributions – but only amounting to 2.5 percent of their contribution-relevant income rather than the initially targeted 3.5 percent. Free co-insurance is now to be retained for parents of children under twelve years of age instead of under seven years, as initially reported by the portal "The Pioneer" and the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung."

In return, the federal government is to assume higher financing shares according to the F.A.Z. For instance, the regular federal subsidy of 14.5 billion euros could be reduced by less than the planned two billion euros. At the same time, it is envisaged that 1.4 billion euros more from the federal budget will flow to the statutory health insurers in the coming year than planned.

Background: 18.8 Billion Euro Gap

The background to the reform pressure is a rapid development of expenditures at the beginning of the year. After a more rapid increase in insurer expenditures at the beginning of the year, Warken had raised the necessary savings target. A gap of 18.8 billion euros must be covered for 2027. To this end, remuneration increases for practices, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry are to be limited.

In addition to restrictions on co-insurance of spouses, patients will face higher co-payments for medications, among other things. The package is to relieve the statutory health insurers of sharply rising expenditures in 2027 in order to prevent new contribution increases. This brings the goal of stable health insurance contributions within reach, provided the coalition actually secures the financing.

Timeline Before the Summer Break

The CDU/CSU and SPD are struggling to reach agreements on several points before the targeted adoption of the savings package for stable health insurance contributions in the Bundestag. To this end, the CDU/CSU and SPD must still extract at least 2.5 billion euros more than the draft launched by the cabinet provides. The coalition aims to pass the law by Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) in the Bundestag this week.

It is then also to be finally considered by the Bundesrat, which is convening on Friday for its last session before the summer break. If the package is not adopted in time, further contribution increases threaten at the turn of the year for the roughly 73 million statutory insureds in Germany. This news was broadcast on 06.07.2026 on the Deutschlandfunk program.

Observers interpret the revisions as a signal to the coalition factions, but also to the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession. Through the limitation of remuneration increases at practices, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry as well as the planned switch to a constant supplementary discount, reliable savings are to be achieved. At the same time, insureds are to be relieved through lower co-payments and a reduced co-insurance contribution.