Germany's Health-Care Revamp to Hurt the Rich, Sueddeutsche Zeitung Says

German Health Minister Philipp Roesler plans to make higher earners bear the brunt of a health- care revamp to go into effect next year, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported, without saying where it got the information.

To help plug a 10 billion-euro ($12.4 billion) funding gap in the public health-care system in 2011, Free Democrat Roesler plans to levy monthly per-capita premiums of as much as 30 euros for every insured person, the newspaper said.

Workers earning more than 3,750 euros per month will have to contribute a bigger share of their income to the health insurance system to limit the burden for low-income earners, the newspaper said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel supports the plan as long as it wins the consent of Horst Seehofer, head of the Christian Social Union, the smallest of three parties in the governing coalition, the newspaper said. Roesler and Seehofer meet in Munich on May 31 to discuss the matter, Sueddeutsche said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rainer Buergin in Berlin at rbuergin1@bloomberg.net

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