Four German states reject healthcare reforms:

The German states of Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg, Hesse and Saxony, which are ruled by the opposition CDU party, have rejected the federal government's draft healthcare reform proposals. At a meeting of state health ministers in Trier last week, they described the draft, which was published on May 25 (see Clinica No 860, p 3), as "damaging to the insured, to employees, to the states and to doctors". The CDU-led states are dismayed at the proposal to remove their responsibility for financing hospitals' capital costs, reports Handelsblatt. Their support is important since the governing SPD-Green coalition does not have a majority in the upper chamber, the Bundesrat, which will need to ratify the legislation.