Statutory health insurance
End of family insurance: government plans exceptions
April 10, 2026 – 2:27 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Non-contributory family insurance should be abolished. The federal government is now examining exceptions for parents and carers.
Specialist politicians from the Union and SPD are currently discussing possible exceptions for parents, but also for caring relatives. “The question of non-contributory co-insurance concerns many citizens,” “Spiegel” quotes Dirk Wiese, the parliamentary managing director of the SPD parliamentary group. If there are no daycare places or relatives need to be cared for, it is difficult or impossible for those affected to take up gainful employment. “We take this very seriously,” emphasized Wiese.
In statutory health insurance, spouses and life partners as well as children can be insured free of charge in the so-called family insurance if they are not subject to insurance themselves and do not exceed a certain income.
The Health Finance Commission had proposed abolishing this free co-insurance. In the future, only parents with children under the age of six should be given this opportunity. According to the Commission, all other spouses and life partners should pay 240 euros per month for their health insurance. This would lead to additional revenue of 3.5 billion euros.
Around 16 million family members are currently insured free of charge through family insurance. The majority of them are children. Depending on the design, around three million people would be affected by a reform.
The population is largely critical of the proposal to abolish family insurance. In a representative Insa survey, which “Bild” reported on Sunday, 57 percent of Germans spoke out against abolition. Only 28 percent supported an end to free coinsurance.
