Given the constant increase in costs of compulsory health insurance (GKV), a savings package of over two billion euros is expected to prevent insured people from having to face higher contributions again next year. Healthcare has also recently become significantly more expensive in Berlin and Brandenburg.
The data just published by the Statistical Office of the Land Berlin-Brandenburg documents this dynamic precisely.
Sickness funds, record increase in expenses: 743 million more in Berlin
In the German capital, expenditure increased by 743 million euros in 2023 alone compared to the previous year, reaching almost 12.9 billion euros in the capital. In Brandenburg they grew by 511 million euros, exceeding 9.5 billion. As the office reports, the increase in expenses was higher than the national average.
In Berlin the increase, equal to 6.1%, was only exceeded in 2014, when it reached 6.5%. In Brandenburg, at 5.6 percent, it was the strongest increase ever.
The shares of both Länder in the overall expenditure of compulsory health insurance at the federal level remained stable: Berlin at 4.6%, Brandenburg at 3.4%.
Medicines and medical services: over half of expenditure
Most of the expenditure in both Länder was intended for drugs and medical services. Together they represent over half of the total.
In Berlin, the average GKV expense per insured was 3,930 euros, therefore higher than the national average which stands at 3,786 euros.
Pressures on the system and prospects for containment
The savings package of over two billion euros announced at federal level should contain pressure on contributions. It remains to be seen how much these measures can actually affect structural dynamics such as the costs of pharmacological innovation and how much they are influenced by the debate on the quantity and quality of guaranteed services, all factors that make the issue of healthcare costs thorny not only in Berlin and Brandenburg, but in the entire German GKV system.
