The DAK health insurance fund is demanding that any austerity measures proposed for the statutory health insurance (GKV) must be applied with equivalent force to the supplementary benefits provided to civil servants.
Andreas Storm, the head of DAK, stated to the “Rheinische Post” that it is absolutely necessary to transfer changes made to benefits for regular insured patients to the supplementary benefits for civil servants. According to Storm, “If the benefits for insured patients are set to decline, this must also be the case for the supplementary benefits of civil servants”. To achieve this, he proposed that the Cabinet must develop preliminary points for reforming the civil service benefit structure before the Bundestag votes on the wider GKV reform. He stressed that this step is crucial for gaining societal acceptance for any changes.
Storm provided two specific examples to illustrate his point. The first involves the proposed abandonment of the free co-insurance for spouses. Currently, this free co-insurance represents a significant, socially justifiable advantage of the GKV when compared to private health insurance. If the government decides to eliminate this benefit-which is expected to require partners to pay a 2.5% contribution starting in 2028-this change must also be mirrored in the supplementary benefit structure.
A second key example given was the establishment of spending limits for medical care provided to regular insured patients. Storm argued that the fundamental principle of the reform-that expenditures should only grow as fast as contribution revenue-must be applied to the supplementary benefits provided by the federal government as well.
