The German government will present a proposal for reform of the country's health sector in coming months, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats was quoted as saying on Sunday.
"We will present a reform in the first half of 2006," Christian Democrat (CDU) parliamentary floor leader Volker Kauder told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper in an interview.
Kauder said the CDU and its coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD) agreed that health reform had "top priority."
"In our view, the core elements of reform are more competition, more transparency on the cost side and on the services provided," he added, echoing similar remarks made by SPD Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck in the same paper.
Prior to a September 18 general election which produced the new coalition government, the CDU had advocated the introduction of a flat-rate healthcare premium for every insured adult.
By comparison, the SPD mooted a so-called "citizen's insurance" into which all paid to replace the existing health insurance, although Kauder said it was "certain" that this model would not be a part of any new health reform.
Because of low birth rates and an ageing population, funding for Germany's health sector has become an increasingly difficult issue.