GKV boss: Health insurance companies advocate making appointments based on medical needs

According to the umbrella association of statutory health insurance companies, those with statutory health insurance should be better off when it comes to arranging doctor's appointments. “We have to organize access to outpatient care so that appointments are made based on medical needs and not based on how someone is insured,” said the CEO of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, Oliver Blatt, to Funke Medien.

75 million people are legally insured and thus finance the vast majority of medical fees. Nevertheless, they are often disadvantaged when it comes to making appointments. This is a “blatant injustice.” (Read the current SPIEGEL cover story “Second Class People.”)

The umbrella association had previously explained that in order to achieve justice, a daily updated platform was needed in which all practices posted a fixed proportion of their appointments. And then you should no longer be allowed to ask whether you are legally or privately insured.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) said almost a month ago that if the impression becomes that those with private insurance receive every benefit immediately and those with statutory health insurance wait weeks and months, that would be "a problem of justice." GKV boss Blatt now said that doctors should continue to treat private patients, but should not automatically give them priority. “A person with statutory health insurance should not have to wait two weeks longer just for that reason.”

GKV boss against the concept of two-class medicine

Blatt said he doesn't believe in the term two-class medicine. "In the hospital and by the vast majority of doctors, those with statutory health insurance are treated just as well as private patients, and in some cases the billing is even easier for them," he said. The unequal treatment is particularly evident in the waiting times for doctor's appointments.

In SPIEGEL, the head of the Techniker Krankenkasse, Jens Baas, spoke out in favor of restructuring the dual system with statutory and private health insurance. Private and statutory health insurance should be abolished. The best of both worlds should then be used in a new system.