Bundesgesundheitsministerin Nina Warken-member of the CDU-rejected the CDU‑Economy Council’s proposal to eliminate dental care from the statutory health insurance (GKV) benefit catalogue.
“Demanding that dental treatments be removed from the GKV list will not be implemented” she said on Monday. “I rule that out, because it would represent a departure from the core principles of our solidarity system and runs counter to the goal of strengthening prevention”.
The idea has faced cross‑party criticism, even though several of her own party’s politicians have supported it. For instance, the CDU Spitzenkandidat from Rhineland‑Palatinate, Gordon Schnieder, described the call to strip state‑funded dental services of “absurd” character. He told newspapers of the Funke‑Media Group that the debate risks undermining the security of many citizens who had reasonable doubts about whether they might have to pay for dentist visits privately.
In a separate interview with the “Rheinische Post”, Green deputy floor leader Andreas Audretsch warned that the Union’s push to exclude dental visits from the insurance catalogue would strip people of a visible sign of their social status and “break society”.
