Incoming German Health Minister Carsten Linnemann has called for reducing the country's statutory health insurers from roughly 90 to just 10, outlining his most concrete policy ambition after Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a cabinet reshuffle on Friday that also saw Thorsten Frei named as the new CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader.
Linnemann, a former Deutsche Bank Research economist who was asked to take the post at short notice, has requested time to settle into the role while outgoing health minister Nina Warken moves to head the Chancellery.
Social welfare organisations have pressed Linnemann to champion insured patients more forcefully, with the VdK and Sozialverband Deutschland demanding that non-insurance care costs be funded from general taxation. Medical and insurance bodies have called for deeper structural reforms, including overhauls of primary care and long-term nursing insurance.