Bundestag adopts the Statutory Health Insurance Contribution Rate Stabilization Act in Germany

On July 10, 2026, the German Bundestag passed the Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) Contribution Rate Stabilization Act (GKV-Beitragssatzstabilisierungsgesetz). During the parliamentary process, additional fiscal measures were incorporated into the legislation after it was approved by the Federal Cabinet to close the funding gap that had widened in the interim.

By curbing expenditure growth across all sectors of the healthcare system, the legislation aims to ease pressure on insured individuals by limiting increases in supplementary health insurance contributions while ensuring the long-term sustainability of high-quality healthcare. The Act is intended to stabilize the average supplementary contribution rates charged by German sickness funds.

Some of the key measures are listed below.

Increased federal funding

• The Federal Government will permanently increase its contribution toward healthcare costs for recipients of basic income support by €750 million annually, resulting in the following funding levels: 2027: €1.0 billion, 2028: €1.25 billion, 2029: €1.75 billion, 2030: €2.25 billion, and from 2031 onward: €2.75 billion annually;
• The planned reduction in the general federal subsidy to the SHI system will also be scaled back: 2027 – reduced from the originally proposed €2.0 billion to €1.35 billion, from 2028 onward: €1.55 billion.

Hospital sector: expenditure controls

• From 2027 to 2029, hospitals will be subject to the same expenditure growth cap as other healthcare sectors, limiting reimbursement increases to the basic wage growth rate minus one percentage point;
• Beginning in 2030, reimbursement adjustments will be based on the hospital orientation value, or, if lower, the basic wage growth rate.

G-BA Innovation Fund

• Permanent reduction of the Innovation Fund budget: From 2027 onwards, the annual budget is permanently reduced to €100 million;
• New financing model: The Innovation Fund will no longer be co-financed by sickness funds; funding will come exclusively from the liquidity reserve of the Health Fund (Gesundheitsfonds);
• Simplification of funding procedures: The two-stage application procedure, as well as the short-duration (up to two years) one-stage funding track for new care models, will be abolished. Future funding for new models of care will generally take place through a single-stage procedure, reducing administrative burden.

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