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Welcomed ideas:
- 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.
Not sure:
- 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.)
- 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.)
Absolute fck you idea:
- 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.
Here is another idea:
- Reform company ownership structure so wealthiest people can not dodge taxes using trust or foundations owned company structures, as they currently do. (Foundation owned companies like Lidl, Aldi, Trumph, Bosch, etc pay 0 to less than 1% taxes on profits and they also pay zero inheritance taxes, meanwhile me and most probably you the reader if you are a German, pay 35% of our labour as taxes.)
As far as I know the health insurance is split 50/50 between employer and employee. It’s around 14.6 % of you wage. But only a wage up to 70K € a year is considered. So a engineer and a billionaire will pay the same amount. I guess removing that barrier and filling in loopholes where owners of huge cooperations “do not earn anything” could fix that. Just saying more taxes paid does not necessarily mean more money for insurance
As far as I know the health insurance is split 50/50 between employer and employee.
AfaIk, the employers share was frozen several years (decades? Schröder?) ago. Since the all increases went onto the bill of the employees.I still study but I trust this government run website which says the normal fee and the additional ones are each split 50/50. TK health insurance official documents say the same.
Then, it has been unfrozen again in the past:
Der Beitragssatz für die GKV wird zum 01.01.2011 auf 15,5% angehoben – […] Im gleichen Schritt, wird der Arbeitgeberanteil eingefroren. In Zahlen sieht das dann wie folgt aus: Arbeitnehmer zahlen aus den 15,5 % - 7,3 plus 0,9%- gesamt also eine Belastung von 8,2% der Arbeitgeber zahlt generell 7,3%. Durch die Festschreibung des Arbeitgeber- Beitrages auf 7,3% werden die Gesundheitskosten von den Arbeitskosten für die Zukunft entkoppelt.
The contribution rate for statutory health insurance will be increased to 15.5% as of 1 January 2011 – […] At the same time, the employer’s contribution will be frozen. In figures, this breaks down as follows: employees pay 7.3% plus 0.9% of the 15.5%, making a total contribution of 8.2%; the employer generally pays 7.3%. By fixing the employer’s contribution at 7.3%, healthcare costs will be decoupled from labour costs in future.
The recommendations in full (obviously in German).
Newsflash: Health Insurance contributions that are a percentage of wages rises with inflation and absolute cost of insurance weirdly also seems to increase.