German private insurers, and the private healthcare services sector as a whole, are breathing a collective sigh of relief after burgerversicherung, a unified statutory insurance policy, failed to make it to the Social Democrats’ list of top ten negotiating points for the coalition. The policy would have meant the effective phasing out of private insurance. Still, the Social Democrats’ number one demand, the introduction of a minimum wage of €8.50, could hurt.

The news confirms what many had expected. Healthcare is now perceived as a low priority, and one that many politicians simply don’t want to confront. Instead, the minimum wage is an easy, populist issue.

The big krankenkassen, the statutory insurers that cover 89% of all Germans, are now sitting on cumulative surpluses equivalent tens of billions of euros. The perception in Germany is that healthcare isn’t broke, and doesn’t need fixing.

Burgerversicherung would have done away with what the left saw as privileged, gold-plated private policies for the wealthy. Fine in theory, but in practice, abolishing these policies – which pay a much higher tariff than the krankenkassen – would have led to chaos.  For instance: diagnostic lab groups depend on the much higher private insured prices for their profits.

However, the introduction of a €8.50 minimum wage, which is an absolute condition for the Social Democrats to enter a coalition, would have an impact on the healthcare sector in former East Germany, where many nursing homes are said to pay €6-7 an hour to Polish labour.