Andreas Bartels, deputy board chairman of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) Rhineland-Palatinate, called the recently passed law from the Federal Ministry of Health an “emergency law.” He criticized a paradigm shift: previously, care was based on need; in future, the motto will be “How much money is in the kitty?” This was reported by the news agency dpa.
The savings package is intended to relieve statutory health insurance funds of sharply rising costs in 2027 in order to prevent further contribution increases. Planned measures include spending brakes for practices, hospitals, pharmacies and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as higher co-payments for medications and restrictions on the free co-insurance of spouses. Bartels fears that independent practices will find it even harder to recruit successors: “We have doctors who are already losing their livelihoods.”
The KV representative is particularly concerned about care for nursing and retirement homes. Home visits and nursing home visits will in future be included in the budget pot, whereas previously they were outside it. “That means many will think twice about whether to continue offering this,” Bartels warned. He also warned of a bottleneck in pediatric check-ups if parents cannot find pediatricians.
Bartels praised the approach of reforming sick notes but criticized the implementation: the telephone sick note will be abolished, even though it was a “bureaucratic blessing.” In this, he aligns with Rhineland-Palatinate’s SPD Health Minister Clemens Hoch, who had complained about additional bureaucracy for patients and practices.
Source: www.spiegel.de
