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Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD): “Back on track”
Photo: Emmanuele Contini / IMAGO
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) sees the implementation of his planned clinic reform on the right track. "The hospital reform is back on track," he said in Berlin. The blockage of a hospital transparency law that is part of the reform has been resolved. The draft law had already been passed by the Bundestag in October, but was thwarted by the Bundesrat at the end of November.
The state chamber referred the draft to the mediation committee of the Bundesrat and Bundestag for further revision. According to Lauterbach, the Union-led states have so far refused to put the law on the committee's agenda. The SPD politician spoke of a “procedural blockade” – but this has now ended.
"I am very grateful that the Union-led countries have given up their blockade stance," said the minister. According to Lauterbach, the law will now be discussed in the Mediation Committee on February 21st - "and when the content is discussed, I am sure that we will make progress." The Federal Council could then vote on the draft on March 22nd.
The core of the Transparency Act is a digital clinic atlas: In the future, patients should be able to find out about the medical strengths and weaknesses of each individual clinic. If the Federal Council passes the law, this platform will be available from May 1st, as Lauterbach has now announced.
Lauterbach: Hospital reform more necessary than ever
The core of the hospital reform is a new remuneration system that is intended to free hospitals from the economic pressure to treat more and more patients. According to Lauterbach, a corresponding law on hospital financing is to be passed by the federal cabinet on April 24th. The Bundestag would then have to deal with it. However, the Federal Council's approval is not required, said the minister. However, the state chamber could object to this, but this is considered unlikely.
Lauterbach argued that his hospital reform was more necessary than ever. Many clinics are in financial distress, and at the same time there are quality deficits because many hospitals are not specialized enough. “We therefore have to solve these two problems,” emphasized the minister.
On the sidelines of the federal press conference, the Ministry of Health also rejected statements by Ilya Yuffa, Executive Vice President of Eli Lilly and President of Lilly International, that discussions were underway about changing the rules for health insurance reimbursement for weight loss injections. The ministry currently has no plans to have health insurance companies reimburse weight loss drugs such as Wegovy or Zepbound.
“There are currently no plans to make any changes to the statutory health insurance reimbursement of medicines for losing weight,” said the Federal Ministry of Health in response to a request from the Reuters news agency.
czl/AFP/Reuters