In the current debate about cutting costs in the German health system, Andreas Gassen, the head of the Association of Physicians in Outpatient Care, is demanding that all voluntary services offered by statutory health insurers be abolished entirely. He argues that if the statutory benefit catalogue can’t be funded and savings are needed, “nice‑to‑have” services should be the first to be eliminated - he told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”.
Gassen also criticized insurers’ attempts to reduce doctors’ fees while still paying large sums for marketing‑oriented benefits. According to him, the health insurers are trying to cut reimbursement for services decided by the Joint Federal Committee while simultaneously investing heavily in advertising‑friendly offerings. He estimates that completely eliminating these supplementary services could save nearly one billion euros a year.
The services in question are the so‑called “Satzungsleistungen”, which go beyond the standard benefit level set for statutory health insurance and vary from provider to provider. They include the disputed therapies of homeopathy, anthroposophy and phytotherapy. Many insurers also subsidise health‑promotion courses and the purchase of fitness trackers. Critics repeatedly accuse insurers of spending solidarity‑fund money on promotional items whose medical benefit is often doubtful, thereby turning health insurance into a marketing platform.
