Regulatory Reform
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek / Germany
All legal aspects surrounding regulatory reform in Germany. Prepared in association with Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, a leading global law firm, this is an extract from The Pharma Legal Handbook: Germany, available to purchase here for USD 99.
1. Are there proposals for reform or significant change to the healthcare system?
Two reforms came into law on January 1, 2019. The first one concerns the reduction of health insurance premiums for employees. It is named the “GKV-Versichertenentlastungsgesetz” (GKV-VEG) which provides the employers will again pay 50% of the health insurance contribution. The private health insurers are still permitted to require supplemental contributions from their members to meet the costs. The average supplement will be about 0.9% in 2019 so that the total contribution is 15.5% of the gross salary.
The second reform is referred to as the “Pflegepersonal-Stärkungsgesetz” (PpSG)” which concerns the nursing care insurance (Pflegepflichtversicherung). Due to the low pay and significant lack of nursing staff in geriatric care institutions, significant increases in pay and nursing staff are required and need to be funded. Nursing care insurance premiums are, therefore, expected to increase by at least 0.5% (max. cost 150 € per month).
2. When are they likely to come into force?
In an attempt to fund the system as a whole, further reforms can be expected which will probably mean that benefits will be further restricted and premiums will continue to increase.
