Press Release No. 37/2010 IG Metall: Decision on Health Care Reform Is a “Black Day for Workers”

Frankfurt am Main – Hans-Jürgen Urban, executive board member and social policy expert at IG Metall, has described the Bundestag’s passage of the healthcare reform bill as a “dark day for workers.” “This reform marks the final departure from the fair distribution of healthcare costs between employers and employees,” Urban said Friday in Frankfurt. This, he said, destroys the system of equal financing that has proven its worth in Germany for over a century. Steps in this direction had already been taken by the Red-Green Coalition and the Grand Coalition. If the law takes effect as planned, the CDU/CSU and the FDP will have permanently relieved employers of their obligation to contribute half the funding for the solidarity-based health insurance system. Cost increases in the healthcare system would then be borne solely by workers and the insured, Urban criticized.