Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to reorganize the financing of statutory health insurance. But there is criticism – and warnings that the contributions could increase more.
Doctors’ representatives and health insurance companies have criticized Health Minister Karl Lauterbach’s plans to reform the financing of statutory health insurance and warned against even higher contributions.
“Instead of a coherent overall concept for the financial stabilization of the GKV system, the politicians are only presenting patchwork,” said the President of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, on Tuesday. Reinhardt criticized the planned reduction in the extra payment for treatments for new patients in medical practices. This could further aggravate the supply situation and may be another reason for young doctors to decide against a branch.
The head of the health insurance company DAK, Andreas Storm, said in an online press conference that one had to assume that the increase in premiums would be higher than announced by Lauterbach. Storm expects an increase of 0.4 percentage points and that there will be “a jump in contributions of at least 0.3 points” in long-term care insurance. According to expert calculations for the DAK, the billion-dollar hole in statutory health insurance could be as deep as 19 billion euros in the coming year, as the cash register announced on Tuesday.
The SPD politician Lauterbach had spoken of 17 billion euros at the end of June and presented the key points for a law to stabilize cash finances. In this context, he also announced that the average additional contributions for the statutory health insurance companies are expected to rise by 0.3 percentage points in the coming year. In addition to the increase in contributions, a “solidarity levy from the pharmaceutical industry” is planned, a higher federal subsidy, i.e. more tax revenue, limited increases in fees for dentists and a limitation on the administrative costs of health insurance companies.
According to earlier information from the central association of statutory health insurance companies, the background to the deficit is, among other things, political decisions in recent years. Laws for more nursing staff or shorter waiting times at the doctor’s would have led to permanent additional costs.
Source: Stern
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