Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is apparently planning to increase the contributions to statutory health insurance from 2023. This is intended to plug the expected financial gap. The war in Ukraine will probably make this even bigger.

The additional contribution to statutory health insurance (GKV) is to increase “moderately” from 2023. This emerges from a letter from the Federal Ministry of Health by Karl Lauterbach (SPD), about which “Bild” reports.

The purpose of the increase is to compensate for the expected financial gap in the statutory health insurance budget. So far, this is expected to be in the amount of 17 billion euros. However, it is expected that the war in Ukraine will make the hole even bigger.

Lauterbach does not want to announce exactly how large the increase will be until the end of May, probably also in order not to cause unrest before the election in North Rhine-Westphalia. CDU health expert Tino Sorge also senses calculus. “Obviously, the traffic light before the NRW elections doesn’t want to announce bad news,” he speculates. It is an “open secret” that the contributions would increase for many citizens.

The rule of thumb for an increase is as follows: a deficit of 16 billion euros corresponds to an increase in the cash contribution by one percentage point. This costs citizens between 156 euros and 312 euros net per year more.

Surf tip: Minister of Health – Karl Lauterbach: This is the permanent warning minister