Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death in Germany. Health Minister Lauterbach wants to counteract this. The plans are not well received everywhere.
The chairman of the Federal Joint Committee of doctors, clinics and health insurance companies, Josef Hecken, criticizes the plans of Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) to combat cardiovascular diseases. “More medication and check-ups for children are activism, but not a strategy to get this disease of civilization under control,” Hecken told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).
Lauterbach’s draft for a “Healthy Heart Act” stipulates that children, adolescents and adults should undergo regular heart examinations in the future in order to identify and prevent lipid metabolism disorders. The examinations in childhood and adolescence should provide early indications of whether there are hereditary reasons for lipid metabolism disorders. Medications for smoking cessation and lowering cholesterol levels should also be able to be prescribed more often.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs “not peppermints”
From Hecken’s point of view, the plans are aiming in the wrong direction: “Instead of ensuring that children eat a healthy and balanced diet and there are awareness campaigns about a healthy lifestyle, drugs are to be prescribed,” he complains. The drugs Lauterbach prefers to lower cholesterol are not “peppermints from the supermarket,” but drugs with many interactions and side effects. They cause muscle pain, liver damage, and diabetes, for example.
Hecken said that with such an approach, lifelong medication would begin in the teenage years. “The approach of permanently administering medication to children must remain the absolute exception if there is no other option for medical reasons.”
Around 350,000 deaths per year
According to the draft law, the services are to be financed by the health insurance companies. The Federal Joint Committee is the highest decision-making body for health insurance services in the healthcare system.
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in Germany and, according to the Robert Koch Institute, cause around 40 percent of all deaths, around 350,000 per year. The Ministry of Health justifies the need for the law with, among other things, the lower life expectancy compared to other Western European countries and, at the same time, a deficit in prevention and early detection.
Source: Stern
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