Already in January, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) interfered with the question of what benefits health insurance companies should pay for and for which patients themselves have to pay. Now the Federal Minister of Health is again working to expand his power on this point - much to the annoyance of the SPD.
In some cases, Spahn wanted to "authorize the Ministry of Health in principle to decide independently and independently which new examination and treatment methods should be taken over by the cash registers", criticized the spokeswoman for health of the SPD parliamentary group, Sabine Dittmar. This is "the wrong way".
Spahn had already tried in the planned appointment service and care law to write additional skills in the legal text. Now he has launched a second attempt to accommodate a corresponding passage in a bill.
"We reject that, it will not come"
Actually, the Joint Federal Committee (G-BA) of doctors, health insurance funds and clinics largely decides on the benefits catalog of the health insurance companies. If it is up to Spahn, the committee should conclude its assessments in the future at the latest after two years instead of three years. Otherwise, the Ministry should be able to decide by ordinance with the consent of the Federal Council.
In the appointment service and supply law was Spahn's initiative "for good reasons prevented," explained Dittmar. "This proposal will not get better just because it will be reopened in another legislative process." Decisions of the G-BA would undoubtedly have to be made faster. By ministerial order, however, would be the wrong way. "That would raise not only liability issues but also patient safety issues."
COMMENT ON THE TOPIC
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach also rejected Spahn's plans. "We reject that, it will not come," he told Handelsblatt. "We do not want to worsen the proven system in any way so that the Minister himself can decide on cash benefits."
The G-BA warned in a statement before a "step back into the medical Middle Ages". By ministerial order methods could come with completely unexplained benefits and damage in the catalog of benefits of statutory health insurance (SHI).
The panel chairman, Josef Hecken, spoke of a gateway to health care at will and volume of articulation of lobby interests. The plans also violated the principle that cash benefits should be economic.