“Affront to insured people” – health insurance companies accuse statutory health insurance doctors of scaremongering

In the dispute over the effects of the health savings package on the number of doctor's appointments, the statutory health insurance companies are accusing doctors of stirring up fears among those insured. “The claim that there should be fewer doctor’s appointments because they are paid less is not correct,” said the deputy head of the National Association of Health Insurance Funds, Stefanie Stoff-Ahnis, to the editorial network Germany (RND).

“This is an affront to 75 million people with statutory health insurance and their employers, who finance the fees of practicing doctors through their health insurance contributions,” she emphasized and criticized: “This unsettles people who are dependent on medical help.”

Andreas Gassen, head of statutory health insurance physicians, had warned that those with statutory health insurance would have to wait significantly longer for a doctor's appointment in the future due to the reduction in funds for outpatient care. “By cutting funding for outpatient care, the same federal government has just canceled more than 50 million appointments in outpatient care,” Gassen explained in the interview with “Bild”.

It is not the remuneration, but the surcharges that will be canceled

The “shortage of appointments” would be further exacerbated by a new reporting requirement. If a fixed appointment contingent is blocked in this way, it will no longer be available to patients. There can only be more appointments with more money.

Stoff-Ahnis, however, emphasized that the austerity package would not reduce remuneration for medical services, but would eliminate surcharges and bonus payments for particularly quick appointments. The policy goal of shortening appointment waiting times through these extra fees has not been achieved. On the contrary, waiting times have even become longer. “It was and is not justifiable to spend contribution money on ineffective extra fees,” said Stoff-Ahnis and also referred to the result of the fee negotiations for 2027.

After that, the remuneration for medical services increases by 2.2 percent or one billion euros. Taking into account the canceled extra payments, those with statutory health insurance would continue to pay fees of around 50 billion euros to practicing doctors through their health insurance contributions.

She also recalled that the doctors received an average annual net income (before taxes and social security) of well over 200,000 euros from their practices: “And there is no reason to believe that anything will change.”