Chancellor Friedrich Merz , under pressure to deliver reforms to Germany's costly health care system, has announced that what he called a "historic" health care draft law had been agreed by his Cabinet on Wednesday morning.

The package, designed to stop spiraling health insurance premiums, must still pass through the German Bundestag, where it is expected to come under some intense scrutiny from parliamentarians.

Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is governing the country in a fraught alliance with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) , and there have been reports of angry altercations in coalition meetings (which Merz denies).…