Leading medical representatives warn the federal governments that cuts to the budget in the context of a savings package would lead to a significant reduction in the number of patient appointments.
Already, many treatments are not being reimbursed, said Andreas Gassen, chairman of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), in an interview with “Bild”. “Less money means less service” he stressed. “Specialists are already missing payment for 15 % of the appointments they perform-about 40 million unpaid appointments per year. We will cut these appointments considerably over the course of the year” he added. “If fee reductions are also approved, even more services will disappear”.
Gassen dismissed the notion that such cuts would not affect care. “Anyone who claims that reductions in remuneration have no impact on patient care either has no idea or deliberately lies” he said. In principle, physicians are ready to adjust the scope of services to the funds available. “We are always prepared to increase or decrease the service offering in line with the money that is at hand”. To illustrate, he compared it to a mobile phone plan: “If you buy a ten‑gigabyte data plan to keep costs down, you cannot complain later when streaming stops”.
The federal chairman of the Association of General Practitioners, Markus Blumenthal‑Beier, also warned about the negative consequences of potential savings. He told a newspaper that since the removal of hard budgets, “finally our entire work is being paid for everywhere”. He warned that reversing this would have concrete effects on patients. In particularly affected regions, practice closures could loom. Many colleagues would re‑examine whether keeping a practice profitable is still viable and might shut down if necessary. “The outcome would be that more people would be unable to find a general practitioner who can take care of them” Blumenthal‑Beier said. He noted that poorer primary care is proven to increase hospital admissions, which becomes quickly very expensive. “Those who cut general practitioners are essentially shooting themselves in the foot”.