The reform of social insurance was one of the largest projects in the short phase of the turquoise-blue coalition from 2017 to 2019. 21 social insurance institutions became five, the regional health insurance funds (GKK) of the federal states were merged under the umbrella of the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) in Vienna or .centralized.
The reform was controversial for many reasons, in Upper Austria above all because the reserves of the solidly operating OÖGKK should flow into the Vienna headquarters – after all, it was about 300 million euros for the insured in Upper Austria. Governor Thomas Stelzer (VP) urged the then Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (VP) that the money should be used in Upper Austria. That was also promised, but apparently something else was planned, as new chats between Kurz and the former Secretary General in the Ministry of Finance, Thomas Schmid, suggest.
The social security reserves were apparently intended to finance part of the tax reform of the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition. “We have to prepare counter-financing from 2021,” wrote Schmid to Kurz.
And Schmid also specified what he meant by that: “Then we need the OeNB, the reserves of the SV and the ministries. We have hidden a few treasure chests so that you still have money for projects :-)”.
That was also intended to reassure the Chancellor, because Kurz Schmid had previously communicated his concerns via chat: “… always just shit on me because of the counter-financing and the economy. I hope everything holds up.”
“These chats show what we have always warned about,” said the employee representative of the ÖGK, Andreas Huss. The cash merger was primarily about the ÖVP and FPÖ securing “Körberlgeld” for their policies and wanting to misappropriate the money of the insured. “The ÖVP needs to commit to ending this self-service mentality,” says Huss.
Source: Nachrichten
