KBV and health insurance funds welcome Warken's initiative to ease the burden on health insurance

Berlin . The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-SV) support and welcome Minister Warken's call to finance the treatment costs of recipients of the citizen's allowance . The CDU politician had previously stated that the federal government must cover these costs entirely from the budget. This amounts to approximately ten billion euros annually.

"It is good and right that the Federal Minister of Health has taken up and embraced the demand for the state to fully refinance the costs of healthcare for citizens' allowance recipients," explained Florian Lanz, spokesperson for the GKV-SV (State Health Insurance Association). "Because state social benefits," Lanz continued, "are to be paid for by the state and not passed on to statutory health insurance contributors." At the same time, Lanz added: "But we have heard similar political demands and announcements many times before – we are now waiting for action."

The board members of the KBV, Drs. Andreas Gassen, Stephan Hofmeister, and Sibylle Steiner, stated: "The financial situation of the statutory health insurance funds is critical, primarily because in recent years, contributions from the insured community have been used to pay for services that should actually be financed by taxes. The example of the citizen's allowance stands out.

The treatments for citizens' allowance recipients have long been underfunded by the state. The board members stated that "we urgently need the missing funds to ensure medical care for people in Germany. The minister has our full support on this point."

Whether Warken's demands will prevail will be revealed on June 24. Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) will present the draft federal budgets for 2025 and 2026 at a press conference. In light of the precarious financial situation , Klingbeil recently signaled that he was willing to provide financial relief to the statutory health insurance system to avoid rising contributions from insured members. (bwa)