2023-09-24 11:22:24
Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) appealed to the federal states in the financial equalization negotiations to assume their “state political responsibility”. The current offer of two billion for the health sector and care is “an enormous amount of money,” said Rauch on Sunday in the ORF “press hour”. Financial equalization is the only window of opportunity for health care reform, he warned. Otherwise there would be a “giant dilemma” in five years.
“If we don’t manage to implement a reform, then this republic will eventually suffocate due to its inability to reform,” said the Health Minister. Nevertheless, Rauch was confident that an agreement would be reached by mid-October. The work is well advanced, the finance minister is on his side and the states need financial equalization because otherwise they would not be able to cope with the shortfall in revenue.
Rauch once again rejected an ambulance fee to relieve the burden on hospital outpatient departments. In order to combat the shortage of personnel, it is important to improve the general conditions for health personnel, invest in training and carry out qualified recruitment from abroad, said the minister. Rauch said he doesn’t think much of individual federal states going it alone and advocated for joint action with other countries such as Germany. “That is the chance we have as Austria, we are simply too small and even more so a federal state.”
Rauch once again called for more doctors to be brought into the statutory health insurance system by making the framework conditions more attractive for statutory health insurance physicians and for elective doctors to meet at least the same conditions as statutory health insurance physicians. With regard to the shortage of medicines, Rauch believes that the “Austrian homework” has been completed and that a legal framework must now be established at the European level. He criticized warnings from the pharmaceutical industry about new drug shortages as “theatrical thunder” that also had self-interest behind them.
With regard to the Corona situation, Rauch was confident that we currently have a much better overview of the situation than a year ago. The slightly increasing numbers and around 200 patients currently in hospitals are “not alarming news”. The Minister of Health once again appealed for booster vaccinations, especially for older people, and for wearing masks in large crowds. He did not want to rule out a new mask requirement if the situation worsened dramatically or in the case of another virus variant, “but at the moment we are finding that recommendations are enough.”
Rauch said that he could partly share the criticism that the vaccination options in the private sector in Austria were confusing. The medical profession had pushed for the vaccination to take place, but if that didn’t work “in a week”, the Ministry of Health would organize it differently. “Because I don’t watch when vaccines are available, people want to get vaccinated and don’t come to a vaccination appointment.”
With regard to the anti-inflation measures, Rauch emphasized that it had been possible to maintain purchasing power in Austria. The Minister of Social Affairs admitted that the government had been too heavy-handed at the beginning, but it had acted quickly and the fight against poverty had been very effective, he emphasized.
The Minister of Social Affairs rejected demands from pensioner representatives for improvements to the planned pension increase. “This is the end of the line,” said Rauch. Pension reform is not his current topic. “Until we manage to bring the real retirement age closer to the legal one, it makes no sense at all to talk about it.”
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