The following extract from the article “Reform of Health Care in Germany” in the Health Care Financing Review describes the Health Care Reform Act of 1989.
Finally, following a jump in average contribution rates from about 11.5 percent to nearly 13 percent in the mid-1980s, which was a result both of rising unemployment and of further increases in expenditures, the government introduced a further bulky package of reforms in the Health Care Reform Act of 1989. This has been described as the most important statute on the statutory health insurance system since the Law of 1911 (Schneider, 1990). It was aimed both at cost containment and at financing some selected improvements to benefits.