evidence: After a period of active health reform in several areas between 2012 and 2016, new reform debates and proposals stagnated until spring 2018. One of the reasons is that after the federal elections in September 2017, it took six months of difficult talks and political insecurity to again form a grand coalition between political parties (Christian Democrats and Social Democrats). The first new bill introduced in 2018 (the SHI-Contribution Relief Law, or GKV-Versichertenentlastungsgesetz) aims to reduce the mandatory contributions that individuals in SHI pay every month.20 While the general contribution of 14.6 percent has been equally shared between employers and employees since 2015, the supplementary contribution is paid by employees only. The law plans to reinstate the equal split of general and supplementary contributions between employers and employees. Furthermore, the law stipulates halving the reference amount used to calculate the minimum contribution for the self-employed insured. Until now, independent of their actual income, the self-employed have paid a contribution based on expected minimum income of EUR 221 (USD 284) per month. This is unmanageable for a large proportion of small-business owners and increases their risk of having no health insurance.21