Economic advisor Achim Truger has questioned the high number of civil servants in Germany and called for their inclusion in the statutory health insurance system. "One should ask whether so many civil servants are actually needed," Truger told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ) in remarks reported on Monday.
"Teachers and university professors like me, for instance, would not necessarily need to have civil servant status," he added.
In the long run, this would be a good way to integrate state employees more firmly into the solidarity-based community and to prevent the emergence of a class-based system, according to Truger. "I consider it completely wrong that civil servants are kept out of the statutory health insurance system," Truger emphasised. He noted that the strong salaries earned by civil servants could help strengthen the financial position of Germany's statutory health insurance funds (GKV).
The economist also criticised an unfair distribution of costs within the healthcare system, which he said comes at the expense of contributors. "The fact that civil servants are partly doing so well is also connected to the fact that the lives of others have been made worse over the years, for example, by making contributors cover most of the healthcare costs for citizens' allowance recipients," Truger said.
He added: "The federal government is making things easy for itself in that regard.
The statutory health insurance funds, funded by their insured members' contributions, currently pay for the bulk of the insurance costs of recipients of Bürgergeld (citizens' benefit) or basic income support. This means that those with private health insurance do not contribute to this financing.
Germany currently has close to two million civil servants. At the start of their careers, they can choose whether to be covered by statutory or private health insurance. Due to financial advantages, approximately 93 percent of all civil servants in Germany are privately insured.
Truger is a member of the German Council of Economic Experts, known as the “Wirtschaftsweisen.” The council assesses the economic situation on behalf of the federal government.
Both the statutory health insurance and the long-term care insurance systems are facing enormous financial challenges. A deficit of 15.3 billion euros is expected in the statutory health insurance system next year, and one of over 7.5 billion euros in the long-term care insurance system. Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) therefore wants to reform both insurance systems to counteract this.
A draft law for the statutory health insurance reform has already been approved by the federal cabinet. Warken plans to present a draft for long-term care reform by early July.
Oliver Blatt, the chairman of the GKV-Spitzenverband, is urging action. Long-term care is running out of time, "because the funding gap will be there right at the start of next year," Blatt told Der Spiegel on Friday. The association estimates the additional funding needed for long-term care insurance next year at around ten billion euros.
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