Germany Eyes €60 Billion in Potential Healthcare Cost Cuts

Germany can impose more than €60 billion ($68.8 billion) in cost cuts in its healthcare system by 2030 with measures such as restricting doctors’ pay, reining in drug costs and shifting the financing for welfare recipients.

The initiatives are part of a menu of 66 options for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government that were formulated by a commission of health experts and economists to control rising costs in Germany’s public health-insurance system. Authorities will now decide which measures will best address a fiscal gap that’s estimated to grow to €40 billion by the end of the decade.