Boris Augurzky, a health economist at the RWI Leibniz Institute, is calling for an increase in hospital copayments. Since 2004, German patients have paid a ten‑euro copayment for each day they stay in a hospital. Augurzky asked the government to raise that amount to fifteen euros to keep pace with inflation, a move that could add several hundred million euros in additional revenue. He noted that price rises are affecting everyday services as well, mentioning that hairdresser charges have also gone up.
He insists that the burden should be shared among all stakeholders-not just doctors and clinics, but also patients. Older citizens, who visit doctors and hospitals more frequently, would be most affected by higher copayments, but he argues this would be generation‑fair and progressive. Otherwise, only the contributors to the health system would shoulder the costs. Augurzky suggests moving away from piecemeal discussions toward a comprehensive policy package, which would make unpopular measures easier to pass.
In a debate over voluntary health‑insurance benefits such as homeopathy, Augurzky disagrees with Andreas Gassen, the director of the federal Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, who wants to eliminate such services. Augurzky counters that removing all voluntary benefits would reduce competition among health insurers, undermining one of the system’s key competitive mechanisms.
