Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Germany's ruling coalition parties today reached the first agreement on new health-care rules amid persistent dissent over the planned health revamp, a priority of Chancellor Angela Merkel's four-year term, a lawmaker said.

After weeks of squabbling over steps on how to revive state- run health-care funds, coalition experts agreed to continue to rely on insurers to collect companies' and workers' premiums, said Wolfgang Zoeller, a member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats.

``It's a technical aspect with little bearing on the main disputed elements of health-care changes,'' Zoeller said in an interview. ``We'll tackle the sticking points on Thursday.''

Progress by coalition health experts to frame a blueprint for legislation has for months been marred by criticism, most notably from Merkel's fellow Christian Democrat leaders, of a July 3 compromise that aims to cut Germany's health costs, the world's third-highest behind the U.S. and Switzerland, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Zoeller said coalition experts agreed to drop a plan included in the July 3 agreement that sought to enable regional authorities, not insurers, to collect premiums. Today's accord ``won't create new red tape'' and authorize insurers to submit monthly contributions to the centralized ``health fund'' Merkel wants to set up by 2008.

``It's a piece of good news after all the frustration of late,'' Zoeller said, adding the talks will resume on Sept. 28.

Voters' Disaffection

With health-care plans delayed until at least the end of October, the Christian Democrats and CSU are bearing the brunt of voters' disaffection. The two sister parties have now dropped behind their Social Democrat coalition allies for the first time since Nov. 15, a week before Merkel took office as Germany's female chancellor, a Forsa poll showed today.

The CDU and CSU parties fell 3 percentage points to 29 percent in the weekly survey while the Social Democrats rose by the same amount to 30 percent, Forsa, questioning 2,499 people, said. The poll was conducted between Sept. 18 and Sept. 22 and had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

The Social Democrats' parliamentary leader, Peter Struck, said both sides will aim to bridge the divide over health at a special meeting on Oct. 4. Some of the CDU/CSU's eleven state premiers are worried the health fund, designed to pool premiums and allocate uniform payments to insurers, will inflict higher costs on their constituencies in 2008 when four CDU state leaders will seek re-election.

Today's meeting also agreed to ``ease the burden'' on hospitals, ordered by the July 3 accord to contribute some 500 million euros ($634 million), or 1 percent of their budget, toward insurers' debt-reduction efforts.

``We can't dictate such savings across the board, there has to be fairer competition,'' Zoelle said, refusing to elaborate.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andreas Cremer in Berlin at acremer@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 26, 2006 16:29 EDT