Basic health insurance - symptoms, diagnosis, therapy
Content:
The German basic income support system is under pressure: Rising benefit rates and low labor force participation among benefit recipients point to structural disincentives. The central cause is that work and additional work are hardly financially worthwhile for many household types due to high transfer withdrawal rates - a problem that will continue to worsen without reform.
The presentation analyzes the causes of these disincentives and, based on current scientific studies, presents a holistic reform approach that combines simplification of the system, improved opportunities to earn additional income and a more consistent application of the means-tested principle. Using microsimulations, it will be shown that such a reform can simultaneously enable more employment, fiscal relief and better targeting - without significant disadvantages.
CV:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Peichl is Head of the ifo Center for Public Finance, Head of the ifo Center for Macroeconomics and Surveys, Professor of Economics - Faculty of Economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. His research topics are public finance, labor economics, macroeconomics and political economy.
Moderation:
Prof. Dr. Marcel Thum and Prof. Dr. Joachim Ragnitz
Date and place:
Monday, 27.04.2026, 6:30 p.m.
ifo Institute, Dresden Branch
Einsteinstraße 3
01069 Dresden
Registration:
We cordially invite you to this lecture and look forward to welcoming you to this event. Due to limited seating capacity, we kindly ask you to register. Please use our online form to register.