Is a Cost Spiral Looming?

Copayments: Schumann Summoned to Parliament

According to the confidential document from the ÖGK health insurance fund, drastic cuts are planned for patients.(Bild: Krone-Collage/APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER, Klemens Groh)

Copayments for every doctor’s visit, elimination of reimbursement for private doctors, and other benefit cuts—such drastic measures are currently being considered by the health insurance fund. The public debate on this issue has been overshadowed by the SPÖ crisis. Now the Greens are summoning Health Minister Korinna Schumann to Parliament.

After a confidential strategy paper from the ÖGK employers’ association was leaked last week—outlining plans for all insured individuals to pay for doctor’s visits in the future—the Greens are sounding the alarm. On Wednesday, they submitted an urgent motion to summon SPÖ Health Minister Schumann to Parliament and are demanding that she guarantee that visits to doctors participating in the health insurance system will remain free of charge in the future.

Specifically, the plans call for every doctor’s visit to cost money in the future. Anyone seeking medical care will therefore be asked to pay. The rule would not apply only to expensive private doctors, but to the entire system of doctors in the public health insurance network. According to the document, there are no exceptions—even retirees, the chronically ill, and people with low incomes are affected. The danger: In the future, people who are sick will seek help too late because every doctor’s visit will then be expensive.

Health Minister Korinna Schumann must now answer for this.(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

Furthermore, reimbursement for visits to doctors of choice is to be eliminated. Anyone who needs such an appointment and pays out of pocket—because there are endless wait times at clinics covered by health insurance—will no longer receive any reimbursement. And part-time workers are once again expected to foot the bill. According to the paper, their premiums are set to rise.

A Break with the Fundamental Principle of the Welfare State
For the Greens, these proposals represent a breach of the fundamental principle of our welfare state: “In the future, people who are sick won’t simply be helped—they’ll be handed a bill.”

After the secret plans came to light, the health minister vaguely distanced herself from them. The Greens consider the statement issued so far insufficient: They are demanding a guarantee that doctor’s visits will remain free of charge in the future. To that end, they are inviting Schumann to Parliament. There, it will become clear whether the coalition rejects the plans—or whether it finds it perfectly acceptable that sick people will have to pay in the future.

Outrage Over Employers’ Secret Plans 
“Anyone who goes to the doctor needs help. Not a bill. That is the fundamental promise of our healthcare system,” says Green Party leader Leonore Gewessler. The secret plans of employers within the ÖGK are “an attack on our healthcare system,” adds health spokesperson Ralph Schallmeiner. “The health minister is trying to play it down, but that’s not enough for us.”