From 1 January 2027, picking up a prescription in Germany will cost more: the statutory co-payment for prescription medicines rises from €5–10 to €7.50–15 per pack. The “10 per cent of the price” rule stays; only the floor and the ceiling go up by half. The change comes from the GKV-Beitragssatzstabilisierungsgesetz, the statutory health insurance savings law the Bundestag passed on 10 July.
The amounts had not moved since 2004. The government wants the change to close part of a multi-billion-euro gap at the health funds. During the legislative process the Bundestag health committee struck out the planned annual indexation, so this is a one-off jump of 50 per cent rather than the start of automatic rises.
What will a prescription cost?
The principle: ten per cent of the pharmacy price, at least €7.50 and at most €15, and never more than the medicine itself costs. The Federal Ministry of Health still shows the old examples: a €15 product carries a €5 co-payment, a €200 one €10. From 2027 these become €7.50 and €15. A €40 pack costs you €7.50 instead of €5; at €100 you still pay €10; from €150 the €15 ceiling applies. Between €75 and €100 nothing changes.
So the extra cost per pack ranges from nothing to €5. For anyone on several regular medicines it adds up: twelve cheap prescriptions a year cost €30 more, two expensive packs every month up to €120 more. The maximum co-payment for medical aids also rises from €10 to €15.
The exemptions remain. Children and teenagers under 18 normally pay nothing for medicines (section 61 of Book V of the Social Code). Prescriptions linked to pregnancy and childbirth are exempt, as are products priced well below the reference price (Festbetrag) or that your fund explicitly waives. If a drug is out of stock and you receive several smaller packs instead, you pay once.
The safety net: the annual cap
The key protection is unchanged. All co-payments in a calendar year, covering medicines, therapies and hospital stays, are capped at 2 per cent of annual gross household income, or 1 per cent for the chronically ill. Roughly speaking, on €24,000 of household income that means at most €480, or €240 for chronic patients. For families, allowances for a spouse and children reduce the income base; for people on Bürgergeld or basic income support, the benefit rate is used, which puts the cap at a few hundred euros a year. Once you reach it, your health fund exempts you for the rest of the year.
The catch is that the exemption is not automatic. In practice, do three things. Keep every receipt from January; pharmacies issue them on request. Or pay your expected co-payments for the year to the fund in advance and be exempt straight away. And if you have a chronic condition, ask your GP early whether the fund will recognise it as “seriously chronic”. This applies equally to Ukrainians on Bürgergeld, who are insured in the statutory system through the Jobcenter and pay the same amounts as everyone else.
Our assessment: people on low incomes with several long-term medicines will hit the cap more often in 2027, so those who collect receipts in time will get part of the money back. That comes with a caveat: the exact threshold depends on your household, and your fund calculates it binding for you.
Sources: Federal Ministry of Health, Bundestag, Drucksache 21/7023, Techniker Krankenkasse, Apotheke Adhoc, Pharmazeutische Zeitung
