The Federal Minister of Health wants to provide financial support for the children’s and obstetrics stations.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had set the bar high for himself. “The hospital reform is now getting down to business,” he said on the short message service Twitter. The reason for this are plans from his house, which the minister discussed with the heads of departments of the federal states on Tuesday.
This involves aid for children’s and obstetrics stations of up to 840 million euros and the introduction of day treatments. This is intended to ensure basic services in rural areas, which are already difficult to maintain financially in some places. The plans have not yet been agreed in the traffic light coalition and the parliamentary groups.
In concrete terms, Lauterbach plans that each hospital will receive a fixed base amount of 1.5 million euros for obstetrics. Facilities that also maintain a specialist department for pediatric and adolescent medicine, for newborns or both can receive up to two million euros again. In clinics, reduced income in pediatric and youth medicine should also be compensated.
The aid adds up to 420 million euros each for the years 2023 and 2024. Lauterbach is hoping for tax money for the health fund, the reserves of which are almost exhausted. The statutory health insurance companies (GKV) draw their income from the pot, which has to pay for the help. Without federal funds, the GKV would have “a higher burden in the amount of its financing share (approximately 90 percent)”, according to the plans.
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The plans met with criticism from the cash registers. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds spoke of a “bought reform pause”: “The contributors should pay again, from whose wallets the reserves in the health fund come.” Paula Piechotta, member of the Greens in the Bundestag, also insisted that the plans “should be financed seriously “.
Many clinics need financial support.
(Photo: Ulrich Baumgarten/Getty Images)
In addition to the aid, Lauterbach plans to introduce flat rates per case for day treatments, with the aim of avoiding unnecessary overnight stays in clinics. Rapid implementation is controversial in the traffic light coalition.
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The health policy spokesman for the FDP, Andrew Ullmann, said his party would not agree to the day treatment before the hybrid case flat rates are regulated. However, Lauterbach only wants to tackle this in a second step. “I am very concerned that there could be false incentives – for example, because financially troubled hospitals are expanding their range of services instead of offering needs-based services,” said Ullmann.
More: Lauterbach plans billions in aid for clinics and care