Expenditures for medical therapies in Germany have sharply increased in recent years, yet the quality of care remains uncertain. This finding is presented in the Healthcare Products Report 2026 from the Scientific Institute of the AOK (WIdO), which was introduced in Berlin on Tuesday.
According to the report, statutory health insurance funds allocated nearly 13.3 billion euros for medical therapies in 2024, representing a doubling of spending over a period of ten years. By the end of 2025, these expenditures had already reached 14.7 billion euros. The Institute noted that the introduction of the blank prescription system in 2024 significantly contributed to rising costs, even though its benefit to patients has not yet been clearly established.
The majority of these expenditures went towards physiotherapy, which accounted for 69.7 percent of the total medical therapy revenue for statutory health insurance. Furthermore, the number of prescriptions reserved for long-term medical needs has nearly quintupled since 2017. There has also been a notable rise in the required care for severe or chronic conditions. The costs associated with these highly specialized prescription types totaled 2.6 billion euros in 2025, making up half of the AOK’s total costs for medical therapies.
