Andreas Gassen, head of Germany's National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, has issued a stark warning about significantly longer wait times for specialist appointments if the government proceeds with proposed funding cuts for outpatient physicians.
"If policymakers follow the commission's cost-cutting recommendations one-to-one, then patients must prepare to wait 50 days and more for a specialist appointment," Gassen told newspapers of the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND, Monday editions).
According to the federal government, the average wait time for statutory health insurance patients stood at 42 days in 2024. In 2019, when the compensation rules now being questioned by the commission were introduced, government data showed wait times of just 33 days.
The head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) argued that due to the existing cost ceiling, 40 million specialist appointments currently go uncompensated. If the surcharges mediated through appointment service centers or general practitioners are eliminated, practices would only offer appointments that are actually paid for.
"40 million fewer appointments means that roughly every eleventh appointment would be eliminated," Gassen said. Patients would notice this within a matter of weeks. "Surely nobody can seriously expect that my colleagues will simply continue as before when another billion euros plus is being taken away from us, instead of finally paying for all services that are provided," Gassen cautioned.
The physicians' chief rejected the argument put forward by the expert commission and the Federal Audit Office that the surcharge regulation has brought no benefit to the insured. "Specialists have naturally offered significantly more appointments in recent years because the surcharges made it financially worthwhile," he said.
Gassen called SPD parliamentary leader Matthias Miersch's demand for a three-week appointment guarantee "Bullshit." "Medical necessity must determine appointment scheduling and not arbitrary deadlines set by politicians for voter appeasement," he emphasized. Gassen instead called for a clear definition of urgency.
According to the KBV's assessment, this concerns a "really very small percentage of all appointments." These patients must be treated within hours or a few days. "The vast majority can wait several weeks or months from a medical perspective." Someone who has back pain "does not need to be examined tomorrow if they have had the complaints for three years already," the KBV chief stated.
An expert group appointed by Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) presented 66 recommendations last Monday for stabilizing health insurance contributions. These include ending free co-insurance for spouses, along with higher co-payments for medications and tax surcharges on tobacco, alcohol, and sugary beverages.
The commission sees by far the greatest savings potential with physicians, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry, including through strict capping of compensation.
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