Associations have criticized the renewed support for statutory health and long-term care insurance through loans, as planned in the 2026 draft budget. "This is not a sustainable solution," said Oliver Blatt, Chairman of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV), on Wednesday. "On the one hand, the loans are not even sufficient as immediate measures. On the other hand, they ultimately only postpone the financing burden into the future."
As long as the gap between revenue and expenditure continues to widen, the permanent pressure to increase the supplementary contribution rates of health insurance funds and the long-term care contribution rate will remain, Blatt criticized. The pressure to increase this will "only be temporarily covered up with loans – and that's eyewash."
The federal government plans to support statutory health insurance with loans of €2.3 billion each in 2025 and 2026. Long-term care insurance is to receive €0.5 billion in 2025 and €1.5 billion next year. The cabinet approved the draft budget for 2026 on Wednesday."Once again, the federal government is taking a lean approach with this budget planning," Blatt continued. The association's head criticized, in particular, that the federal government does not "fully" cover the health insurance contributions of citizens' income recipients. He stated that this is a "task for society as a whole."
Diakonie Deutschland also criticized the idea of statutory health insurance and long-term care insurance taking out loans. These "only shift the costs into the future," explained the social association's president, Rüdiger Schuch. Instead, "real reforms" are needed. These must "distribute the burden fairly, give institutions planning security, and at least keep contributions stable." In the short term, the Diakonie called for tax subsidies for long-term care insurance "in order to make this important branch of social security effective again."
Joachim Roick, the general manager of the Paritätischer Gesamtverband (Paritätische Gesamtverband), called the draft budget "a missed opportunity to strengthen social security." He argued that social services must be financed entirely from tax revenue. "Social security systems must be strengthened through additional revenue and more insured people paying in," Roick told the AFP news agency.
Among other things, the association's head called for greater participation by particularly wealthy individuals and a citizen's insurance system within the statutory health insurance system. Both these funds and the long-term care insurance are recording deficits in the billions.
Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) repeatedly defended the loans as "emergency aid." However, she argued that structural reforms are necessary in the long term. According to the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD, these reforms are to be developed by appropriate commissions – the one on long-term care reform has already begun its work.
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