Germany is one of the countries with the best medical care. A wide range of hospitals, medical practices and institutions guarantees medical care for everybody. With over four million jobs, health care is the largest employment sector in Germany. All in all, 10.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product is spent on health – 1.5 percent more than the average in the OECD member countries. As a result of the so-called cost-cutting law introduced in the wake of the reform already undertaken to the health system, Germany now makes the lowest per capita increase to health spending of all OECD countries: Between 2000 and 2007 spending rose in real terms by 1.4 percent per annum, while the OECD mean was 3.7 percent.

 

In 2007 a reform of the healthcare system was passed. Its key pillar is the Health Fund: Since 2009 all the contributions paid by employees and employers to the statutory health insurance scheme flow into this Fund. This is supplemented by tax revenue. Ever since there has been a standardized contribution set by the Federal Government for health insurance. For each insured person the health insurance companies receive a flat rate from the Health Fund. Companies which insure a particularly large number of old or sick people and low earners receive a subsidy. The Federal Government’s long-term aim is to enable more autonomy with regard to contributions and greater regional differentiation. In addition contributions are to be introduced that are not based on income, but which are to be balanced out through social security payments. To enable health costs to be almost entirely de-coupled from wage ancillary costs, the employers’ share of the health costs is not to rise any further.