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Specialist appointments Cash patients have to wait an average of 23 days longer
For years it is reported again and again that there is a disadvantage for cash patients at doctor appointments. A recent survey confirms this again. According to this, a cash-patient in Bavaria waits an average of 23 days longer for an appointment with the specialist as a private patient. The call for so-called citizen insurance is getting louder again.
Cash patients are waiting 23 days longer
The fact that one usually has to wait for an appointment with the specialist far too long, has probably anyone who was dependent on it, ever experience. For members of the statutory health insurance this is especially true. Bavaria now has new data. In the Free State, cash-desk patients have to wait 23 days longer for a doctor's appointment than private insured persons. This is clear from a survey of the Greens. According to the information, the Allgäu and Bayreuth, Bamberg and Hof are doing particularly poorly. Cash patients receive their medical appointments on average 27 days later than patients who are privately insured. It is said that the waiting time in Munich is the shortest, but even there insured persons on average would have to wait 19 days longer for an appointment than private patients.
Private patients get much faster appointments. Image: Andrey Kuzmin-fotolia Waiting times differ by more than 100 days
The telephone survey was conducted in November and December. Seven disciplines were examined, including eye, skin and ear and nose and throat specialists, as well as radiologists, cardiologists, neurologists and orthopedists. The demography expert of the Greens in the Bundestag, Doris Wagner had 350 specialist medical practices in Bavaria call. The callers asked for appointments twice in quick succession - once they pretended to be cash-on-demand and once as private patients. It turned out that only in every third practice did "little or no difference", "whether you were insured as a sick person or privately," according to the study. In part, the waiting times would have differed by more than a hundred days.
"Front runner here was an ophthalmologist from Kaufbeuren: As a cash patient we were offered an appointment after 260 days, as a private insured after seven," the authors reported. Other specialist areas also showed clear differences. For dermatologists, cash-desk patients are among the worst, according to the study: they have to wait an average of 31 days longer for an appointment than private individuals. In orthopedic practices, however, the difference is only eleven days. Wagner told the SZ: "It is unacceptable that such differences exist. Especially for cash patients with serious problems. "
Better earnings with private patients
The fact that one often has to wait in Germany for a very long time for an appointment with medics, already showed earlier studies. For example, the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung" conducted a test last year that showed that on average, with five weeks' waiting time, one had to expect an appointment with the doctor. One reason for the longer wait of cash patients sees the Green politician in the fact that physicians in private patients receive better payment for benefits. "If physicians receive more than double the fee for a private patient, a preference in the appointment allocation is understandable," says Wagner.
Faster dates in the future
Some people think that one can deal with the problem of long waiting with a little trick and ask themselves: Can I pose as a private patient on the phone? Consumer advocates advise against it, since the physician has the right, if necessary, to send the cash-patient back home and to refer to other office hours. In the coming year, the appointment of specialist appointments for health insurance patients will be speeded up anyway with the help of a law. From January onwards, cash patients should get an appointment with the specialist within four weeks.
Green plead for citizens insurance
To end the unequal treatment of privately and legally insured persons, experts have been calling for years for the abolition of private health insurance and the introduction of a so-called civil insurance. The Greens also pleaded for the model. "Here, everyone pays according to their ability in a common pot and the doctor has no reason to prefer certain people," said Wagner. The Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Bayern, however, accused the Greens of "political actionism". And Health Minister Melanie Huml (CSU) holds the report according to the physician waiting in Bavaria for unproblematic. She told the SZ: "With over ten million legally insured persons in Bavaria, specific complaints about too long waiting times are very rare." (Ad)