Average additional contribution rate for German statutory health insurance stays at 2.9% in 2027

The average additional contribution rate in Germany's statutory health insurance will not change next year. The Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) has set it at 2.9% for 2027, it said on 30 October 2026. That is the same rate as in 2026. The decision is based on the forecast made on 14 October by the statutory health insurance estimates group (GKV-Schätzerkreis), whose members are experts from the ministry, the Federal Office for Social Security and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband). Under the Social Code, the ministry must publish the rate in the Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger) by 1 November each year.

What the average means

The additional contribution comes on top of the general contribution rate of 14.6%, which is set by law. Health insurance funds use it to cover the part of their financial needs that their allocations from the central Health Fund do not cover. The average serves as a guide: the funds set their own additional contribution rates, which differ from fund to fund. The average applies directly only to certain groups, for example people on low earnings, trainees earning up to €325 and people receiving the citizen's allowance (Bürgergeld).

If a fund introduces an additional contribution or raises its rate, members have a special right to give notice. Instead of the usual minimum membership of twelve months, they can give notice up to the end of the month for which the higher rate is first charged. The GKV-Spitzenverband publishes an overview of the rates charged by each fund.

Spending is rising much more slowly

Arithmetically, the average rate is the gap between the funds' expected spending and their allocations from the Health Fund, divided by the contributory income of all members. According to the estimates group's table, the funds' spending is expected to rise by 2.2% to about €378.1 billion in 2027, after an increase of 6.8% this year. Allocations from the Health Fund are estimated at about €318.3 billion. The gap of about €59.8 billion has to be closed by additional contributions; measured against expected contributory income of about €2.07 trillion, that comes to 2.9% by our calculation.

The ministry attributes the slower increase mainly to the act to stabilise contribution rates in statutory health insurance (GKV-Beitragssatzstabilisierungsgesetz), which came into force on 30 July 2026. It will relieve the funds by up to €19 billion next year, the ministry says. Spending growth would then be covered by growth in revenue for the first time in three years. Since 2022 the average additional contribution rate had more than doubled, from 1.3% to 2.9%, according to the ministry, because spending in almost all areas of care grew faster than contributory income.

The Federal Minister of Health, Carsten Linnemann, said in the ministry's announcement that the average additional contribution rate had kept rising in recent years and that the government had now stopped this trend.

What remains open

This does not yet settle what each fund will charge in 2027. Linnemann also called the stabilisation only a first step, saying the structural problems of statutory health insurance had to be tackled. The Health Finance Commission (FinanzKommission Gesundheit) is due to present further proposals for medium- and long-term structural reforms by the end of 2026. According to the ministry, the federal government will take further measures on that basis.