Berlin. The chairman of the Young Union, Johannes Winkel, is calling for healthcare costs for citizens' allowance recipients to be removed from the statutory health insurance system.
Young Union slams social security hikes as unfair burden on workers
"We must ensure that the healthcare costs of citizens' allowance recipients are no longer paid by contributors but by the state, by the public at large," he told news broadcaster Welt. "If we don't resolve the issue of healthcare for citizens' allowance recipients in a reasonable way, we will face a major problem with public acceptance of this health reform." That, he warned, must not be allowed to happen. From neither the state's perspective nor that of contributors, he argued, is it justifiable to maintain the current funding model.
"From the state's perspective: If I decide that citizens' allowance recipientsâwho do not pay contributions themselvesâmust still be covered by statutory health insurance, then the state must foot the bill. I cannot leave that to the contributors." He called this unfair and unacceptable.
"And from the contributors' perspective: If the state now says that premiums are rising and benefits are being cut in some areasâwhich is correct, because we urgently need reformsâthen it cannot simultaneously tell them: 'You will continue to finance citizens' allowance recipients, roughly half of whom don't even have a German passport.' That simply won't work, which is why this proposal must urgently be included in the cabinet decision. The costs for citizens' allowance recipients must be borne by the public, not by the contributors."
Winkel also criticized Family Minister Nina Warken's (CDU) planned increase in the income threshold for social security contributions: "The focus must be on reforming expenditures, not on raising revenue. Germany has enough moneyâit's just distributed unfairly and inefficiently in some areas. We don't need the state to collect even more revenue. The proposal to adjust the income threshold came as a bit of a surprise to me; it wasn't part of the commission's recommendations."
