The governing parties of the CDU/CSU and SPD have rejected the demand of the head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenärztliche Vereinigung, KBV) to abolish voluntary services offered by statutory health insurers.
Simone Borchardt, the health‑policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU Bundestag faction, told “Stern” that the proposal to drop all voluntary contract benefits is too narrow and detracts from the real reforms needed. “The suggestion that we can resolve the structural financing problem by simply removing a few add‑on benefits is an oversimplification” she added.
Christos Pantazis, the SPD’s health‑policy spokesman, echoed that sentiment. He said it would be misleading to imply that cutting these services could sustainably overhaul the statutory health insurance system. Every expenditure must be aligned with medical and evidence‑based benefit, he noted, “yet this does not solve the underlying financing issue”.
Chairman Andreas Gassen of the KBV had called for a total elimination of voluntary services, citing examples such as professional dental cleanings and even controversial treatments like homeopathy. Borchardt dismissed the use of “symbolic” debates over such services, insisting instead on “real structural reforms” focusing on care efficiency and the reduction of duplicated structures. She warned that eliminating voluntary benefits would not address the statutory insurance’s financial problems.
Pantazis made a similar point, noting that while services lacking scientific proof are rightly subject to scrutiny, even a potential savings of around one billion euros would represent only a fraction of the statutory system’s annual total expenditure of over 300 billion euros.
