The Federal Commissioner for Financial Soundness in Administration, served jointly by the President of the Federal Audit Office, Ansgar Heveling (CDU), has broadly supported the savings package intended for statutory health insurance by Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU). However, the office has raised considerable criticism regarding several individual elements of the plan. The expert review, which was commissioned by a membership of the Federal Audit Office, Oliver Sievers, and reported on by the “Tagesspiegel” on June 8th, highlights specific concerns.
A major point of contention is the plan by Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) to reduce the federal contribution to health insurance funds. The subsidy is scheduled to decrease from 14.5 billion euros to just 12.5 billion euros annually starting in 2027. This funding is currently used to cover non-insurance benefits, such as the free supplementary coverage for children.
In exchange for this reduction, health funds are slated to receive increased funding for providing care to those receiving basic security benefits, with the annual payment set to rise gradually by two billion euros until 2031. However, the Federal Audit Office argues that this increase does not constitute an equivalent replacement. The report states that total federal payments would only return to the 2026 level in 2031, meaning there will be a net reduction of federal funds totaling 4.75 billion euros in the interim. The author criticizes that this budgetary consolidation ultimately harms the contributing members, making it incompatible with the federal government’s stated aim of stabilizing insurance contributions.
Furthermore, the audit office noted that Health Minister Warken included the subsidy reduction in her savings package only under pressure from the Finance Ministry, an action they found incomprehensible. According to the review, the reduction constitutes “arbitrary cuts without reference to actual cost development,” as there is no indication that the financial volume of non-insurance benefits provided by the funds will decrease in the coming year.
