Following protests against the legislative proposal put forward by Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU), insurance funds and consumer protection advocates have warned that the planned reforms risk being diluted. Oliver Blatt, Chairman of the Federal Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (noz) that it is difficult to understand how various associations representing physicians, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry are creating doomsday scenarios and even threatening patients with poorer care in order to minimize their own contributions to the reform. He noted that the current struggle is to prevent the burden from being shifted onto insured individuals due to the immense pressure exerted by these diverse interest groups during the legislative process.
Ramona Pop, the head of the Federal Association of Consumer Centers, added that they observe significant overspending on medications and on medical care provided both in private practices and hospitals.
The Health Minister presented a draft law on Thursday, which aims to save 20 billion euros in the coming year to prevent further increases in contributions. The cabinet intends to pass the reform by the end of the month. However, representatives from local general practitioners and hospitals are resisting the planned measures to curb salary increases and eliminate fee reimbursements, having invited media for a press conference scheduled for Monday.
While Pop acknowledged that it is understandable that all interest groups are speaking out loudly, she maintained that many proposals for curbing expenditure are sensible and would not lead to increased burdens on patients. She stressed that, according to the current government plan, patients would be expected to shoulder 20% of the reform’s burden through significantly higher co-payments and service reductions for dental prosthetics and sickness benefits. She described this as being unfair and no longer representing a balanced distribution of costs.
Blatt, the head of the statutory health insurance sector, stated that targeting additional reimbursements for quicker appointment scheduling is appropriate because timely appointments are already scarce. He added that one cannot demand extra money for a service improvement that doesn’t exist. This principle, he argued, must apply across all sectors. Speaking to the “noz”, Blatt also expressed concern about new medications, which are often much more expensive without necessarily offering significantly better results.
