"Rethinking the system entirely": Union sees €40 billion in potential savings in the healthcare system

The healthcare reform could be painful: Employers want to reintroduce the co-payment for doctor's visits and put free family health insurance to the test. The health policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group points to other enormous financial reserves.

Simone Borchardt, the health policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, has called for comprehensive structural reforms in the healthcare system. "We must have the courage to undertake genuine reforms that rethink the system as a whole," Borchardt told the newspapers of the Funke Media Group. Individual cost-cutting measures or minor adjustments are no longer sufficient – ​​what is needed is a "holistic approach that considers financing, structures, and care together – without any taboos."

Borchardt emphasized that the healthcare system holds considerable potential for efficiency improvements. Estimates suggest that up to 40 billion euros could be saved. In this context, she expressed understanding for the recent proposals from the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA), which included higher co-payments, a mandatory consultation fee for doctor's visits, and restrictions on family insurance coverage. "The BDA's proposals address key issues that are long overdue in the healthcare system," Borchardt said. At the same time, she made it clear that more than isolated cost-cutting measures are needed to make statutory health insurance (GKV) sustainable for the future.

The CDU politician referred to the work of the statutory health insurance (GKV) finance commission, whose results should first be awaited. All stakeholders – politicians, health insurance funds, service providers, employers, and insured individuals – must share responsibility. "Only then can a reform succeed sustainably," said Borchardt.

Millions of treatments could be done on an outpatient basis.

She sees a particular need for action in better management of healthcare provision, the expansion of digital processes, and closer integration between outpatient and inpatient medicine. According to Borchardt, approximately four million treatments could already be handled on an outpatient basis – this would reduce costs, relieve the burden on staff, and benefit patients. Artificial intelligence and digital documentation could also help to simplify procedures and accelerate processes.

Furthermore, Borchardt demanded an end to the structural imbalance in so-called non-insurance-related services. "Around ten billion euros per year burden health insurance funds with tasks that should actually be financed from tax revenue," she said. Currently, the insured largely bear the costs of health insurance for recipients of basic income support, rather than the federal government. Only by considering efficient structures, digital innovation, prevention, and a fair financial architecture together can statutory health insurance become "truly future-proof."