After political ping-pong

Guest patients: Lower Austria now offers this secret deal

Hacker (center) complains that the city of Vienna is left with 450 million euros in additional costs per year. Kasser now arrives with a compromise offer.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Martin Jöchl, Mario Urbantschitsch, Attila Molnar)

After years of political wrangling, the ongoing dispute over the care of guest patients in the eastern region could be resolved quickly. Lower Austria's new ÖVP state councillor Anton Kasser is traveling to the federal capital for negotiations today with a compromise offer. The "Krone" knows the key details of the actually secret deal.

On Friday, Vienna's SPÖ City Councillor for Health Peter Hacker made a guest appearance on "ZIB 2". In his usual manner, he was not at a loss for words. For example, he said it was "extremely unappealing" to carry out the dispute over healthcare finances on the backs of the guest patients. And with regard to the ongoing dispute over the care of visiting patients, he said: "It is unacceptable that the federal capital has to shoulder the problems of the entire republic."

Hacker wants to curb "surgery tourism"
As is well known, the Viennese Social Democrat wants to curb "surgery tourism" from the surrounding areas of Vienna, i.e. primarily Lower Austria and Burgenland, because the city - at least according to Hacker - is left with additional costs of around 450 million euros per year despite corresponding compensation payments via the financial equalization system.

A circumstance that the surrounding area sees quite differently. A veritable game of political ping-pong developed between Vienna on the one hand and Lower Austria and Burgenland on the other, with accusations and demands. However, a secret compromise now appears to be on the horizon, aside from the initiative of Salzburg's ÖVP state governor Karoline Edtstadler to hand over healthcare provision entirely to the federal government.