Takes over health insurance office

Well-known elective doctor settles accounts: “Sick system!”

New "Doctors in the center": Angermayr takes over from Reither, here with Kastl and Bobacz (from right).(Bild: Ärzte im Zentrum/ Peter Hinsmann)

Although he has been running a successful elective doctor's surgery in the middle of St. Pölten for years, Dr. Bernhard Angermayr is voluntarily taking on a health insurance fund position from July. And for good reason, as he explains in an emotional message to his patients.

The waiting rooms in Lower Austria are full. And this doesn't just affect panel doctors - if there are any locally. In St. Pölten, a doctor is now making a name for himself with an unusual decision. The gastroenterologist is switching from his private to statutory health insurance practice.

Emotional words to the patients
He has summarized the reasons for this in an emotional statement: "Our healthcare system is ailing: there are fewer statutory health insurance doctors and many people have to switch to elective and private medicine." He sees a lively influx of patients from all over Lower Austria and beyond at his medical center.

Long waiting times for private appointments
Despite working 40 hours a week in the practice, there were sometimes long waiting times for appointments, Angermayr reports via Facebook: "A paradox. But it is precisely this high influx that is one of the reasons why I opted for statutory health insurance medicine. I don't see why people who have paid into our healthcare system for years have to afford an elective doctor."

I think it's wrong to increasingly take it for granted that we have to pay for health services that are basically free.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bernhard Angermayr

From 1 July, the time has come: Angermayr will take over half of Dr. Martin Reither's practice for the time being. The latter will remain in his practice in Wiener Strasse until his retirement in the fall. Angermayr will then take over full-time - in the group practice "Ärzte im Zentrum", which only moved into the new building on Kremser Landstraße this April. There, together with rheumatologist Klaus Bobacz and Stefan Kastl, who specializes in cardiology and will assist him as deputy doctors, he will offer health insurance services at no extra cost.

"The plan is for Prof. Bobacz and Prof. Kastl to take over from Dr. Reither when he retires in order to be available to as many patients as possible and to ensure that his specialization in rheumatology and cardiology continues," says Angermayr.

Even the regional health councillor applauds
Praise for this courageous step has not only come from many patients: "I think it's really great and say thank you personally and as a politician," says Ulrike Königsberger-Ludwig, State Councillor for Health.