Insured persons should be involved in medical expenses

The Federal Government apparently plans a contribution of medical expenses for legally insured persons.

(06.08.2010) Apparently the black-yellow federal government plans a participation of the legally insured in the treatment costs with a physician visit. Regardless of the fact that insured persons have to accept a premium increase of 15.5 percent from the first of January 2010 and that numerous health insurance companies are already paying additional contributions, insured persons should now also be responsible for a large share of medical expenses.

According to information of the "Bild" politicians of the Federal Government plan in the course of the health reform a stronger participation of the insured in the physician and treatment costs. The newspaper relies on information from so-called negotiation circles within the federal government. Thus, the citizens who are insured in the statutory health insurance, two percent of the cost of treatment. In return, the additional contributions to the health insurance should fall away. At the moment, the first negotiations are already being conducted with the health insurances and details regarding implementation have already been discussed.

If this regulation were actually implemented, then complex and expensive treatments would no longer be possible for many people because they simply could not afford the costs. Such an implementation would also be the first time in the system of statutory health insurance. For example, the co-payment for simple treatments such as a cold or cough would be quite low. However, if serious illnesses such as cancer or cardiovascular diseases are present, the cost of treatment will increase to thousands at two percent. The consequence: people with a low income could no longer seek medical help. Already today insured persons have to pay extra for the treatment costs. But in most cases, however, the amounts are calculated on a flat-rate basis. In addition, the additional contributions are often capped in height.

The background to these proposals is the expected billions in health care deficit expected for 2011. According to estimates of some specialist circles, the health insurance companies are missing around 11 billion euros. Now the Federal Ministry of Health is charged with compensating for the deficit with a health care reform. One step in this direction was the increase in premiums to 15.5 percent per insured contributor.

So far, the Federal Government has not commented on the participation costs. However, it can be assumed that a public statement will follow in the next few days. If this proposal were actually implemented, this would have fatal consequences for a large proportion of the population. (Sb)

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