Life imprisonment in the German judicial system is a sick joke on victims' families.  This vile bastard will be out in 5 years:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq819jyp2g7o

German doctor jailed for murder of 15 patients and suspected of more
By Bethany Bell - July 8, 2026

A German palliative care doctor has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 15 of his patients.

A court in Berlin found the 41-year-old man, named only as Johannes M. in line with German privacy rules, guilty of murdering 12 women and 3 men between September 2021 and July 2024.

The authorities believe these killings could be just the tip of the iceberg. Prosecutors are currently investigating dozens of other incidents involving the doctor.

His victims were between the ages of 25 and 94. The court heard how they were all critically ill, but that their deaths were not imminent.

Prosecutors said that during home visits, the doctor administered a lethal combination of various medicines without his patients' consent.

On several occasions, they said he set fires to cover his tracks.

In July 2024, shortly before his arrest, prosecutors said the doctor killed two patients in a single day - a 75-year-old man at his home in central Berlin and, a few hours later, a 76-year-old woman in a neighbouring district.

They said the doctor tried to set fire to the woman's house, but failed.

For much of the trial, which has gone on for about a year, the doctor said nothing. But last month, he confessed to having "killed people," twelve of his severely ill patients.

He told the court he had convinced himself that he was doing the right thing, sparing them "suffering and infirmity".

"Throughout it all, I thought this was the best thing for everyone," he said.

He said he apologised for all the suffering he had caused.

The authorities suspect him of having killed further patients. Prosecutors are currently investigating 76 other cases.

German media say if the further cases are proven, and he is found guilty, it would be one of the largest incidences of serial murder in Germany's history.

The doctor told the court that he would "get involved much earlier in the forthcoming proceedings."

Earlier in the trial, relatives of the victims told the court they still couldn't believe it.

The mother of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman who died in 2021, was in tears. "She never said she didn't want to live anymore," she said.

The son of a 72-year-old woman who died in 2024, said his mother had had plans to go to the Baltic Sea with her sister. "My mother wanted to keep on living," he said.

The court ruled that the doctor's guilt was particularly serious. It ordered that the doctor be put in preventive detention, following his prison sentence. It also imposed a lifetime ban on him practising medicine.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5959235-abbott-texas-birth-tourism/

Abbott orders Texas officials to investigate hospital over ‘birth packages’ for foreign nationals
By Sarah Davis - July 8, 2026

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed state officials on Tuesday to “immediately” launch an investigation into a state hospital for allegedly seeking to profit from “birth tourism” practices.

Abbott said in a letter to Stephanie Muth, the executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, that Mission Regional Medical Center has advertised “BIRTH PACKAGES IN SOUTH TEXAS” in foreign countries “in an apparent effort to profit from securing United States citizenship for their children.”

“Birth tourism is an illegal practice that exploits the extraordinary hospitality that the United States and Texas offer to millions of foreign travelers each year,” Abbott said in a statement.

“Thousands of foreign travelers come to the United States under false pretenses to give birth and secure citizenship for their children,” the Texas governor continued. “HHSC must investigate the hospital, a facility it regulates, for any violations of state law and contractual obligations.”

A spokesperson for Mission Regional Medical Center said in a statement that the hospital does “not support or facilitate any unlawful activity” and is committed to complying with “all applicable federal and state laws and regulations.”

“The marketing materials regarding maternity services are no longer in use due to any unintended misunderstanding,” the spokesperson said. “We intend to work cooperatively and transparently with local and state officials. Our focus remains on delivering safe, high-quality care to every patient who seeks our services.”

The public nonprofit hospital operates under the regulation of HHSC and is located just north of the Texas-Mexico border in a city called Mission.

Republicans have raised concerns over “birth tourism” after the Supreme Court ruled last week against the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine birthright citizenship.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller suggested in an interview last week with Fox News’s Jesse Watters that the U.S. could try to limit the entry of foreign pregnant women into the country.

“You have to now think very carefully about who you let into your country, even on a temporary basis, because the possibility, as you said, for birth tourism,” Miller said Tuesday.

“Birth tourism,” or visiting a country with the intent to give birth there, is a rare phenomenon. The Migration Policy Institute found in a report earlier this year that up to 26,000 children born in the U.S. each year could be tied to the practice — less than 1 percent of the more than 3.5 million annual birthrate.

Additionally, immigration experts have pointed out that U.S. Customs and Border Protection already exercises the power to turn away people at the border and would need no new powers to block pregnant women from entering the country.

Abbott ended his letter to HHSC’s executive director by promising to work with the state Legislature “to strengthen state law and eliminate birth tourism in Texas.”

“American citizenship is not for sale and Texas will not permit our healthcare system to be used as a magnet for birth tourism,” the governor wrote.

A spokesperson for HHSC told The Hill on Wednesday that the agency is working “to immediately implement” the governor’s director and that the investigation has been referred to the Texas Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/case/apr

The People of the State of California v. Heartbeat International & RealOptions

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit against Heartbeat International (HBI) and RealOptions Obria Medical Clinics in California state court. The lawsuit targets HBI’s life-saving work, particularly its activities through the Abortion Pill Rescue© Network—which includes their Abortion Pill Reversal hotline and network of over 1,300 Abortion Pill Reversal providers, clinics, and hospitals.

The State of California’s complaint alleges that HBI and RealOptions are sharing “false or misleading statements,” as well as engaging in “unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent business practices,” for providing information about and access to Abortion Pill Reversal to pregnant women in need. California Attorney General Bonta is seeking a permanent injunction against HBI and RealOptions, to prevent them from sharing their science-based, life-affirming message about the benefits, success, effectiveness, and safety of Abortion Pill Reversal.

Thomas More Society has stepped in to defend both HBI and RealOptions against this frivolous and dangerous lawsuit. Today, more than half of all abortions are done through chemical abortion, or “the abortion pill”—a two- pill regimen that destroys the precious life of an unborn child. Abortion Pill Reversal is a cutting-edge application of a time-tested, FDA-approved treatment used for decades to prevent miscarriage and preterm birth. It involves emergency, ongoing doses of progesterone to counteract the effects of the first abortion pill.

HBI is the first network of pro-life pregnancy resource centers founded in the United States, in 1971. It is now the most expansive network in the world. HBI has over 3,000 affiliated pregnancy help locations including pregnancy help medical clinics (with ultrasound), resource centers, maternity homes, and adoption agencies in more than 80 countries worldwide to provide alternatives to abortion. HBI manages the Abortion Pill Rescue Network.

Simply put, women deserve the right to try and save their pregnancies. No woman should ever be forced to complete an abortion she no longer wants. Thomas More Society is proud to stand in defense of Heartbeat International’s critical work on the frontlines of saving mothers and their unborn children on the cusp of abortion.

https://www.goodmanhealthblog.org/republican-lawmakers-to-test-price-control-on-indiana-hospitals/

Republican Lawmakers to Test Price Control on Indiana Hospitals
By Devon Herrick - June 24, 2026

Republican lawmakers in Indiana have taken a page from Democrat’s playbook and imposed price controls on the amount nonprofit hospitals can charge employee health plans. Price controls are not something Republicans ordinarily support except in very isolated cases. However, this will be an interesting case study. The following is from Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Health News:

Under a law enacted last year, five of Indiana’s largest nonprofit hospital systems cannot charge patients covered by job-based health plans more than an established price cap. Hospitals that fail to keep prices below the threshold by 2029 risk losing their tax-exempt status — which would mean owing millions of dollars in state taxes.

…Indiana hospitals must offer direct contracts to employers for a variety of procedures priced at or below 260% of what Medicare pays for hospital care. That’s setting a ceiling at slightly more than 2.5 times what Medicare pays.

Here is the problem with price controls: nobody really knows what the market rate would be in a competitive market. Set the price cap too low and it can result in providers leaving the market (i.e., shortages of care). Set it too high and it can result in overpaying for care. I suspect that 250% of Medicare will become the de facto price for all services regardless of what was being charged before the law. There is also the risk that health insurance premiums will continue to rise and any potential savings from capping hospital rates will be captured by insurers. More from KFF Health News:

This move represents a departure from the status quo for the business lobby. Ashton Eller, a healthcare lobbyist for the Indiana Manufacturers Association, said the group generally opposes government price controls. But it believes this is a step in the right direction, he said.

“Is this a silver bullet that will bring down prices overnight? We don’t pretend it is,” he said.

No matter what happens in the Hoosier State, Indiana’s experiment with price controls has attracted attention.

Health care is a unique service that often doesn’t respond to traditional incentives. Patients only bear about 11% of medical costs directly. In the hospital, that falls to about 3%. Thus, attempts to get patients to act like consumers are ineffective once in the hospital because patients care less about the cost of care. Cost sharing is supposed to make patients more price sensitive but if cost sharing is 20% they only care about 20% as much about unreasonable prices. Once in the hospital their out-of-pocket max has been reached, rendering patients indifferent about prices. In addition, hospital patients are unable to negotiate or second guess doctors who work for the hospital.

Indiana hospitals are notoriously expensive compared to hospitals in other states. Many nonprofit hospitals also do not appear to be very charitable. Indiana hospitals failing to comply with the law risk losing their tax-exempt status. Nonprofit hospitals pay no federal income tax, no state income tax, no local property tax, no sales taxes and often get preferential bond interest rates. State lawmakers can and should exercise their discretion over which charities qualify for nonprofit status.

The Indiana experiment is unlikely to work in the long term, partly because lawmakers will face lobbying to raise the rates. A better solution would be to collaborate with employers and insurers to implement a system of reference pricing. Once patients are told they will bear the difference from a reference price and the actual price more patients will ask questions about price. The RAND Health Insurance Experiment showed that consumerism can work in health care. The CalPERS reference pricing experiments illustrated how hospitals will compete on price and quality when they risk losing lucrative patients.

The Netherlands is well ahead of Michigan, having legalized euthanasia back in 2002.  This was 14 years before Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) Act in 2016.

Taking a page from Aktion T4, Dutch Health minister Sophie Hermans just stated that a child under age 12 was euthanized late last year.  Dutch law now allows euthanizing children of all ages, bringing their law into full compliance with Adolf Hitler's Führerbefehl of October 1939:

https://www.dutchnews.nl/2026/06/netherlands-records-first-euthanasia-death-of-child-under-12/

Netherlands records first euthanasia death of child under 12
June 23, 2026

A child under the age of 12 has died through euthanasia for the first time since the law was changed two years ago.

Health minister Sophie Hermans said the case had been reported to the committee that reviews all late-term abortions and medically assisted deaths of children.

Hermans revealed the child had died at the end of last year when she presented the committee’s annual report to parliament on Monday.

No details about the child’s circumstances, such as their age, gender or their medical condition, were given.

The death has also been referred to the public prosecution service, as happens with all euthanasia cases, who will decide if the doctors complied with the strict rules that protect them from being charged with unlawful killing.

When the law was extended to under-12s politicians expected around five cases per year to be reported. Previously terminally ill children who wanted to end their lives could only do so by palliative sedation or by refusing food and water.

Unbearable suffering

Euthanasia in the Netherlands is only permitted if the request comes from the patient and a doctor agrees that they are suffering unbearably with no prospect of relief. Around 6% of all deaths last year were through euthanasia.

The doctor must be satisfied that the patient is not acting under duress and must obtain a second opinion from at least one independent colleague.

In the case of a child under 12, their parents must give their consent once the doctor has established that there is no treatment available for their condition.

The committee’s guidelines state: “The doctor will involve the child, insofar as they are capable, in the decision and must be satisfied that the child’s life is not being ended against their will.”

There is no hope for you if you have experienced your typical attempted beheading on the streets of Jolly 'Ol.  You will die, but it will be free:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/08/more-than-1300-deaths-a-month-in-england-due-to-long-ae-waits-figures-suggest

More than 1,300 deaths a month in England due to long A&E waits, figures suggest
Senior medical staff call for solutions to tackle root causes of excess deaths amid tenfold increase in a decade
By Andrew Gregory Health editor - June 8, 2026

More than 1,300 patients a month in England are dying needlessly due to long A&E waits, a tenfold rise in a decade, figures suggest.

There were more than 300 deaths linked to long waits every week in 2025, up from 30 a week in 2015, according to analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

The RCEM’s president, Dr Ian Higginson, said he wondered how many more deaths it would take before there was a meaningful plan to tackle the crisis.

“We have to ask why this awful problem isn’t the subject of relentless focus and political conversation. The number of deaths linked to long stays in our emergency departments explicitly show the system is failing the patients it is meant to be caring for,” he said.

For its excess death estimates, the RCEM used a study of more than 5 million NHS patients published in the Emergency Medicine Journal in 2021. This found there was one excess death for every 72 patients who spent eight to 12 hours in A&E before being found a bed. The risk of death started to increase after five hours and got worse with longer waiting times.

Using this method, the RCEM estimated there were 15,860 excess deaths in 2025 related to long waits. The figure was down slightly on 2024 (16,644) but up nearly tenfold on 2015 (1,657).

Higginson said: “As an emergency doctor, it’s heartbreaking that patients arrive to our emergency departments in their time of need, and we can’t do our jobs properly because we are full. To make things worse we are being asked to focus on the least sick patients to try and marginally improve headline statistics, rather than on those who need our services the most.

“It’s frustrating that we continue to see a lack of solutions designed to tackle the root causes of the problem. Instead, we are fobbed off with recycled ideas that haven’t ever worked, performance data that doesn’t reflect reality, and a focus on perceived ‘quick fixes’.”

He added: “Whilst we welcome the government’s stated commitment to eliminate corridor care, until we prioritise patients who experience long waits for admission, we will not get to the bottom of the whole issue.”

In the meantime, Higginson said, A&Es in England would remain in constant distress and patients would continue to die unnecessarily.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said the death toll was a catastrophe that had gone unchecked in hospitals for far too long.

“To bring this to an end, we need system-wide, long-term, sustainable solutions. This must include urgent investment in hospital beds and the nursing workforce, while also improving access to primary care, investing in community nursing and unlocking capacity in social care,” she said.

Every day without action was a failure that had “devastating consequences” for patients, she added.

Dr Vicky Price, the president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the deaths were a source of “national shame” and the problem of overcrowding in A&Es was getting worse.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it was unacceptable for patients to face long waits for emergency care, and its thoughts were with those who had lost loved ones.

A spokesperson added: “While A&E waiting times are at their lowest level in half a decade, we know there is more to do. That is why we are investing over £215m in 40 new and expanded same-day emergency care and urgent treatment centres across England to reduce pressure on A&E.”

They said the government was also deploying specialist teams to NHS trusts with the worst levels of corridor care in an effort to eradicate it.

https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-campbell-sues-united-healthcare-for-defrauding-masshealth-out-of-100-million

AG Campbell Sues United Healthcare for Defrauding MassHealth Out of $100 Million
Lawsuit Alleges that United Manipulated and Misrepresented Member Health Statuses to Obtain Higher Payments from MassHealth
Office of the Attorney General for immediate release - May 29, 2026

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court against UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, d/b/a UnitedHealthcare Community Plans of Massachusetts (United), alleging the company falsely manipulated the health status of MassHealth members enrolled in its Senior Care Options (SCO) plan to secure higher payments from the Commonwealth. The complaint estimates that the scheme defrauded MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, of at least $100 million.

“The state’s managed care plans need to act in good faith on behalf of their members and the financial resources of our state’s Medicaid program. Our investigation found that United Healthcare knowingly violated these obligations by manipulating health assessments to increase its profits,” said AG Campbell. “This lawsuit sends a clear message that no company is above the law, and my office will hold companies accountable for exploiting vulnerable residents and misusing taxpayer dollars.”

MassHealth’s SCO program serves eligible members age 65 or older living in designated service areas across Massachusetts. Enrollees must receive a comprehensive in-home clinical assessment to determine the member’s health status and assign them one of three levels of care, ranging from least serious and lowest payment rate (Level 1) to most serious and highest payment rate (Level 3). United is the largest provider of SCO plans in Massachusetts.

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) alleges that United manipulated the health statuses of its members to increase profits in three principal ways. First, United submitted assessments of members in the United SCO Plan that led to their classification as Level 2, which is reserved for members with behavioral health or substance use disorders. United classified members by identifying, in its submissions to MassHealth, that members had diagnoses like depression or anxiety, even though those members lacked any corresponding diagnosis or treatment associated with behavioral health or substantive use disorders.

Second, the AGO further alleges that United improperly assessed many members in the United SCO Plan with health conditions satisfying Level 3, reserved for members with the most serious health conditions, even though those members did not qualify for Level 3 services. Beginning in 2018 and continuing into 2019, United became aware through a series of internal reviews that many of its members at Level 3 had been improperly classified. United never disclosed to MassHealth that it had been improperly paid at higher rates for these members prior to their being downgraded, nor has it repaid MassHealth for any of the improperly inflated payments United received while the members were incorrectly classified at Level 3.

Third, United submitted assessments to MassHealth for members in the United SCO Plan that represented that those members needed daily skilled nursing services. Despite these representations, most of those members did not need or receive daily skilled nursing services. As a result, United received higher payments from MassHealth for these members than it should have.

The AGO alleges that these were intentional failures, the result of a “growth at all costs” strategy employed by United that incentivized and encouraged its field nurses to code MassHealth members as sicker or less able than they were.

This matter is being handled by Assistant Attorneys General Kevin O’Keefe and Mary-Ellen Kennedy, Senior Data Scientist William Welsh, Senior Healthcare Fraud Investigator Christine Barker, and Investigator Rachel Wiesler, all of the AGO’s Medicaid Fraud Division. MassHealth provided substantial assistance with the investigation.

The AGO’s Medicaid Fraud Division is a Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, annually certified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to investigate and prosecute health care providers who defraud the state’s Medicaid program, MassHealth. The Medicaid Fraud Division also has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute complaints of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of residents in long-term care facilities and of Medicaid patients in any health care setting. Individuals may file a MassHealth fraud complaint or report cases of abuse or neglect of Medicaid patients or long-term care residents by visiting the AGO’s website.

The Massachusetts Medicaid Fraud Division receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $6,458,176 for federal fiscal year 2026. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,152,724 for FY 2026, is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Importantly, having part-time legislators does NOT mean Texas has fewer healthcare laws, fewer regulations, less government overreach, or less self-serving industry. These, unfortunately, are universal to state governments and healthcare everywhere.

As witness the unfiltered testimony in this week's eight (8) hour health policy committee hearing.

https://senate.texas.gov/videoplayer.php?vid=22702&lang=en

Indiana faced this tough question head-on, and Beckers Health reports the state is showing the incredible power of intelligent, free market health policy.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/hospitals-are-stepping-up-direct-contracting-gains-traction-in-indiana/

‘Hospitals are stepping up’: Direct contracting gains traction in Indiana

Alan Condon    |     April 23rd, 2026

Indiana’s first review of direct-to-employer healthcare arrangements found that all participating hospitals met the state’s pricing benchmark, and advocates say the results signal a broader shift in how employers and health systems are structuring their relationships.

The Indiana Department of Health on April 22 published the inaugural Direct-to-Employer Healthcare Arrangement Plan Review for 2025, finding that every submitted plan came in at or below the statutory threshold of 260% of Medicare rates. The review was mandated under state law requiring nonprofit hospitals to demonstrate their employer-direct plans remain within that ceiling.

Participating systems included:

Ascension St. Vincent (Indianapolis)
Community Health Network (Indianapolis)
Franciscan Health (Mishawaka)
Indiana University Health (Indianapolis)
Parkview Health (Fort Wayne)

Many priced well below the statutory cap, offering employers greater predictability in year-over-year healthcare spending, according to the report.

“This year’s review demonstrates that Indiana hospitals are stepping up to provide employers with affordable, predictable healthcare options,” Indiana Health and Human Services Secretary Gloria Sachdev said in the release. “Direct-to-employer contracts are an important tool for controlling costs while maintaining access to high-quality care.”

The Indiana Hospital Association also welcomed the findings, framing direct contracting as a market-based solution to the growing friction between employers, insurers and providers.

“By working more directly with hospitals or targeted networks to cut out unnecessary middlemen, employers can improve health outcomes of their employees, reduce administrative complexity and create more predictable healthcare spending,” Scott Tittle, the association’s president, said in a statement shared with Becker’s. “As the state’s review shows, hospitals are more than delivering on competitive, transparent pricing that aligns with employers’ needs.”

Ascension St. Vincent CEO Don King pointed to the health system’s employer solutions program — established in 2009 and now serving more than 75 businesses, 125 public schools and over 300 public safety agencies — as evidence that direct contracting at scale is already well underway.

“Through direct employer arrangements, we partner with organizations across Indiana — from small employers to large corporations, schools, public safety agencies and local governments — to improve affordability and deliver high-value care,” Mr. King said.

Indiana’s report lands amid growing national momentum around direct contracting, driven in part by employer frustration with traditional insurance models and high-profile efforts to bring transparency to hospital pricing.

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban has been among the most vocal advocates for the model.

At the Becker’s Spring Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit in Chicago on April 15, Mr. Cuban said the largest commercial payer relationships may actually be the least profitable for hospitals once administrative costs, denials, late payments and clawbacks are fully accounted for.

“If you literally did a cost analysis and a profitability analysis by insurance carrier, the biggest ones are where you’re going to be losing the most money,” he said.

His direct contracting platform, Cost Plus Wellness, connects self-insured employers with providers through publicly posted contracts, with no prior authorization requirements, no balance billing and a mandatory 30-day payment window.

Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health was the first major health system to sign on.

Cost Plus Wellness currently lists 27 published contracts covering at least 9,200 providers and 193 facilities, predominantly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with more being added, according to Mr. Cuban.

His pitch to health system leaders is straightforward: Start with the employers whose workers you already see.

“Go and sit down with them and say, ‘let’s talk about all these patient experiences and what you paid for them, because I can save you money,'” he said. “Because you know what you both have in common? You don’t like insurance companies.”

Nina Warken: „Ergebnisse der FinanzKommission Gesundheit werden Grundlage der bislang umfassendsten Finanzreform der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung“

Die von Bundesgesundheitsministerin Nina Warken eingesetzte FinanzKommission Gesundheit (FKG) hat ihren ersten Bericht fristgerecht am heutigen 30. März 2026 übergeben.

=====================================================================

Nina Warken: "Results of the Health Finance Commission become the basis for the most comprehensive financial reform of statutory health insurance to date“

The Health Finance Commission (FKG) appointed by Federal Health Minister Nina Warken submitted its first report on time today, March 30, 2026.

It is not only Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) cratering government finances.  The Germans spend so much on health care that their Navy has no serviceable vessels and their Army has maybe 60 tanks.  The German health care system looks a lot like the U.S. ObamaCare system with public & private insurance companies paying ostensibly independent medical services providers.  The Germans attempt to provide free health care for all though this model, but everyone involved is being eaten alive financially.

FinanzKommission Gesundheit just released their first report on the German health care system and boy is it a smoker.  Its 483 pages make 66 recommendations, none of which will be implemented by the determined Socialists in Germany:

https://www.dw.com/en/66-ways-to-fix-germanys-costly-health-care-system/a-76597471

https://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/fileadmin/Dateien/3_Downloads/F/FinanzKommission_Gesundheit/FinanzKommissionGesundheit_Erster_Bericht_20260330.pdf

https://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/fileadmin/Dateien/3_Downloads/F/FinanzKommission_Gesundheit/Management_Summary__Erster_Bericht_der_Finanzkommission_Gesundheit_.pdf

66 ways to fix Germany's costly health care system
By Ben Knight - 30 Marz 2026

A special commission has presented a raft of proposals aimed at curbing Germany's spiraling health care costs. But whether the government can impose them is another matter.

A commission of experts presented a 66-point plan on Monday that is meant to lower the ever-growing health insurance contributions that Germans have to pay into the system.

Germany's health care system is one of the most expensive in the world, with state health insurers alone spending around €1 billion ($1.15 billion) per day on health care — a number that is expected to rise even more in the next few years. Meanwhile, Germans' insurance contributions to those state health insurers rose by an average of around 3% this year, on top of a 2.5% rise in 2025.

But despite the rising contributions, state insurers' expenses are increasing even more rapidly. At the press conference, the commission held up a graphic — from the state insurers' association, the GKV — which showed that at the current rate, the shortfall between state insurers' income and expenses would increase from €15.3 billion in 2027 to €40.4 billion in 2030.

The 66 recommendations presented on Monday were designed not only to close that gap, but to make even more savings. The 10-member commission, which included experts from the fields of economics, medicine and social law, was specifically charged with coming up with too many recommendations as the government is unlikely to be able to implement all of them, if only for political reasons.

"I'm grateful that the commission has presented us with a well-filled toolbox, from which we will now take the best tools," Federal Health Minister Nina Warken of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said at the press conference. "It's important for me to emphasize that there will be no one-sided reforms that will burden the insured. We will not shake the cornerstones of a health care system based on solidarity."

More taxes, fewer operations

The commission's 480-page report included proposals such as:

• A rise in taxes on spirits and tobacco.
• A new tax on sugary drinks. Commission member Ferdinand Gerlach, director of the Institute for General Practice and a doctor himself, said experience in other countries had shown that when sugar taxes are introduced, manufacturers tend to reduce the sugar content of their products voluntarily.
• A new measure requiring plannable operations — such as knee replacements — to only be carried out once the patient has received an independent second opinion from another doctor who has no economic stake in the decision. Germany carries out more such operations than many other EU countries.
• Patients pay more contributions for prescribed drugs. At the moment, health insurers pay for most prescription drugs.
• Breadwinners' spouses with no children under 6 would no longer be insured automatically. This is seen as a particularly controversial recommendation, and Bavarian State Premier Markus Söder, for instance, has already said he would not implement it.
• The federal government, rather than health insurers, should pay for the health care of unemployment benefits recipients. This alone would save insurers €12 billion a year, the commission said. But such a proposal is likely to meet some political opposition, as the government is currently also trying to cut costs in the unemployment benefits system.

Eugen Brysch, chair of the German Foundation for Patient Protection (DSP), an organization that protects patients' rights, said the 66 proposals could all have been found lying in the filing cabinets of various health care organizations, but that it was up to the government to agree on a clear plan.

"It's time for the government to show its colors," Brysch told DW in a statement. "The financial gap needs to be addressed. Sustainable health insurance can't be done by a financial commission, only by the government, and for that they need a unified concept."

Brysch predicted, for example, that the proposal to have the government pay the health insurance for the unemployed would lead to a political row in the coalition government.

The ins and outs of the German health care system

Germany has a dual health care system funded by employees' and employers' contributions to health insurers. Health insurance is mandatory for the entire population, and state insurers, which cover around 90% of the population, are not allowed to refuse anyone insurance. Around 10% of the population opt for private insurance, which often offers more cover.

But in the past, critics have raised concerns that hospitals and doctors are incentivized to recommend expensive and unnecessary treatment, burdening the health insurance companies and driving up contributions.

Health Minister Warken promised that the commission's proposals would be examined quickly and that her department would draw up a draft bill to present to the Cabinet by the summer.