Following the recent statement by Chancellor Friedrich Merz (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) that Germany can no longer afford the welfare state, the CDU and Social Democratic Party (SPD) coalition are pushing through drastic cuts to social services which will be at the heart of the federal budget for next year.

The abolition of the citizen’s income scheme was only the first step. Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) has recently called for an Agenda 2030. According to Reiche, this should include far-reaching measures such as raising the retirement age to 70, abolishing payment of wages in the event of illness and a reduction of protections against dismissal.

Proposals for drastic cuts in public healthcare have been widely discussed in the media for months.

Now the German government’s drug commissioner Hendrik Streeck (CDU) has underlined the inhumane and de facto murderous measures the ruling class is prepared to take by proposing drastic cuts to medical care for the elderly.

Speaking to the right-wing broadcaster Welt TV, he raised the question of whether elderly people should still be prescribed expensive medication. He said there are “phases in life when certain medications should no longer be used.” He cited the example of a 100-year-old man suffering from cancer and asked, “Do we really want to use these expensive drugs” in such a case?

Cynically, he reported on the death of his father, who had lung cancer, and lamented that “so much money had been spent” in the weeks before his death.

After these disgusting statements met with widespread criticism, Streeck followed up with a guest article in the Rheinische Post. In it, he criticised the proposition that “prolonging life is always the highest goal,” spoke out against alleged over-treatment, and even went so far as to make the grotesque statement that it is not uncommon for older people to be “operated to death.”

Streeck is notorious for his contempt for human life. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, he advocated a radical policy of allowing the virus to spread and spoke out against even limited mitigation measures.

Streeck is calling for fundamental cuts in public healthcare. Health is “not an all-inclusive service provided by the state,” according to the drug commissioner. Germans go to the doctor too often, causing unnecessary costs.

Streeck’s outrageous demands for cuts in care for the elderly received no open support from the federal government or other parties. However, this does not mean that they are averse to drastically restricting healthcare at the expense of patients and employees.

Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) rejected Streeck’s demands, and deputy government spokesman Steffen Meyer stated that “this is not the position of the federal government.” In fact, however, the Ministry of Health under Warken is currently working on drastic cuts.

A bill already passed by the Bundestag to curb spending on hospitals was rejected last week by the country’s second chamber, the Bundesrat, which passed the measure on to the mediation committee. The bill was intended to save €1.8 billion by limiting hospital spending. This would have had a considerable effect on hospitals, which are already under great financial pressure. At the same time, it would also have had a negative impact on funding in subsequent years.

There are repeated disputes between the federal and state governments regarding hospital financing and planning, which is essentially a matter for the individual states.

There have been numerous hospital closures in recent years. Last year there were 24, and this year there could be even more. “More than 80 percent of hospitals in Germany are now in the red, and several have already filed for bankruptcy,” reported Christian Schuchardt (CDU), chief executive of the German Association of Cities, at the beginning of November.

The €4 billion in emergency aid originally promised for hospitals with deficits is being used to reduce the deficit in the statutory health insurance system. Overall, local authorities in Germany have a huge budget deficit of over €30 billion and, in addition to maintaining hospitals, some of them have to raise additional sums running into hundreds of millions of euros.

In October 2023, the previous government, at the initiative of Health Minister Lauterbach (SPD), decided on the so-called hospital reform, with the aim of closing hospitals across the board and creating a profit-optimised hospital landscape.

Lauterbach responded to Streeck’s demands with a call for further cuts to hospitals. In a social media post, he wrote, “Age rationing of expensive drugs is ethically untenable and unnecessary. We waste a lot of money on expensive and poor hospital care, where a lot can be saved if reforms are not watered down.”

There is no shortage of proposals to reduce costs at the expense of patients and healthcare workers. The reintroduction of the practice fee for local doctors, increased co-payments for medicines, the introduction of a primary care model or further cuts in statutory health insurance benefits are among the most discussed measures.

The deficit in the statutory health insurance funds is cited as the main reason for this. In the first half of this year, statutory health insurance expenditure amounted to €174.9 billion, while revenue was only just under €169.1 billion. This resulted in a deficit of €5.8 billion for this period.

Apart from the fact that this deficit is mainly due to stagnating wages, the two-tier system in health insurance and the market mechanisms in the healthcare sector supported by all parties, is small compared to military spending.

This latter sum amounted to €78 billion in 2024 and is set to rise significantly in 2025. The war budget has more than doubled in recent years, from €50.3 billion (2022) to €108 billion next year. During the same period, the health budget has been reduced from €64.3 billion to €20.1 billion—more than threefold.

Massive cuts are to be made in healthcare, as in all other social sectors, in order to invest more funds in internal and external rearmament.

In addition, if the federal government has its way, every aspect of society is to be militarised. To this end, the healthcare system is also to be made “fit for war.”

At the beginning of November, Bavaria’s Health Minister Judith Gerlach (CSU) called for the healthcare system to be prepared for crises and war: “I believe a nationwide health security summit with all stakeholders is necessary.” To protect hospitals against sabotage and cyber attacks, nearly €3 billion would have to be invested, as well as up to €15 billion in the event of war. “A secure and stable healthcare system is the backbone of a successful overall defence,” emphasised the Bavarian health minister.

These figures come from a study commissioned by the German Hospital Association (DKG) from the Institute for Health Care Business (HCB) and the German Hospital Institute (DKI). The study assumes that in the event of a NATO war scenario, up to 1,000 wounded people would need to be treated daily in Germany, 22 percent of whom would require intensive care beds.

Among other things, the study proposes the extensive construction of underground medical stations, such as those that exist in Israel. A large part of the measures are to be implemented by 2027 in order to achieve the “necessary resilience.” Although the study refers to a defence scenario, it is clear that these plans have nothing to do with defence, but are part of the German government’s comprehensive war plans against Russia.