Reforming Germany's Health Insurance System (Background Note)

The case portrays the effort made by the German Grand Coalition (Christian and Social Democratic) government to change the country's notoriously reform-resistant statutory health insurance system and thus contain rising non-wage labour costs.

The objective of the case is to identify the variables that typically shape domestic policy decisions in Germany and to explore to what extent a Grand Coalition government comprising the country's two biggest political parties can circumvent the obstacles that generally make radical changes in German public policy difficult if not impossible.