Under the present system of financing the statutory health insurance scheme, however, it would place an even greater burden on labour as a factor of production. The result would be a curtailment of employment and growth. To that extent, the measures approved last autumn for the statutory health insurance scheme are to be welcomed. A further rise in contribution rates has been avoided.
Such an increase would otherwise have been necessary in order to prevent the health insurance institutions from running up new deficits and to pay off the debt incurred during the past few years. Patients’ increased personal contributions towards costs will probably act as an incentive to deploy funding more efficiently. Even so, these measures must be seen as no more than an initial step.