Rising healthcare insurance costs are evident

Increase in health insurance premium costs noted substantially - skyrocketing health insurance expenses

The latest figures from the GKV Association reveal a significant increase in expenditure for healthcare services in Germany during the first half of the year. Health insurers spent a total of 166.1 billion euros, marking a 7.95% increase compared to the same period last year.

One of the key areas seeing a rise in spending is hospital treatment, which increased by 9.6% compared to the first half of 2024, amounting to 54.5 billion euros. Expenditure for pharmaceuticals also saw an uptick, with a 6% increase to 28.9 billion euros. Doctors' services followed suit, with an increase of 7.8% to 27.0 billion euros.

These figures have prompted concerns from Oliver Blatt, chairman of the GKV Association, who states that the current increase rates cannot be sustained in the long run. Blatt calls for an expenditure moratorium and structural reforms to improve efficiency in the health system. He aims to prevent the gap between expenditure and income from widening further and return to stable finances in the long term.

In a positive development, after record deficits in 2024, a surplus of 1.8 billion euros had already been achieved by the end of March. This surplus has since increased to 2.8 billion euros. However, it remains unclear whether this current surplus will be sufficient, given the dynamic expenditure development.

The surplus is urgently needed to replenish the statutory minimum reserves of the insurers, which have been depleted in recent years. No new information was provided about the surplus or deficits of health insurers beyond the initial surplus announcement.

Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) will discuss the financial development of statutory health insurance (SHI) in the first half of the year on this Friday. Warken's reform package for the SHI, dubbed the "Reformpaket für die gesetzliche Krankenversicherung (GKV)", suggests that these reforms could lead to faster doctor's appointments for insured persons. However, no new details about the reform package have been disclosed as of yet.

Blatt emphasises that the expenditure dynamics in the first half of the year remain unbroken and that further discussions and actions are necessary to ensure the long-term financial stability of the SHI.