German Chancellor Angela Merkel has survived the most serious threat to her fragile, 10-month-old government, emerging from a marathon, late-night negotiating session on Thursday with an agreement for new financing of Germany?s straitened health care system. But the plan, which Mrs. Merkel once promoted as the centerpiece of her agenda, falls short of a basic overhaul of the huge system and puts off the most important changes until January 2009.
See "German Chief Forges Accord on Financing Health Care", Mark Landler, The New York Times, October 5, 2006