Austria’s health insurers are in the red: a deficit of 578.7 million euros is expected for this year. This means that the current prognosis of the umbrella organization for the three sponsors is 50.6 million euros worse than three months ago. Once again there are calls for freezing payments to hospitals.
A further decline is expected over the next four years, albeit at a much lower level. For 2022, the provisional income statement shows a minus of more than 421 million euros, after about 355 million was expected in February.
Income of 24 billion euros
The three sponsors – the Austrian health insurance fund (ÖGK), the BVAEB for civil servants, railway workers and miners and the SVS for the self-employed and farmers – are expected to raise a total of almost 24.1 billion euros this year. . The largest items are expected to be EUR 6.2 billion for medical assistance, EUR 4.8 billion for remedies and EUR 6.2 billion for ‘institutional care and home medical care – payment to the hospital fund’.
The chairman of the Conference of Social Security Institutions, Peter Lehner, raised this in connection with the ongoing negotiations on financial equalization. “For hospitals, 6.3 billion euros will be transferred from social security to the federal states in 2023. That is 400 million or about seven percent more than last year,” he criticized. For 2026, the management forecast foresees another billion for the hospital fund, then around 7.3 billion euros should flow into this area.
“Cross-financing without participation”
“This cross-financing of the federal states – without transparency and the right to participate – takes away the room for maneuver for the established order and primary care in social security. We must stop this development,” Lehner explained in a written statement. Again he called for a freeze on payments to the hospital fund.
The SVS, of which Lehner is chairman, again outperformed in the cash flow forecast (see chart above). Although a minus is also forecast for 2023 (SVS: -60.1, ÖGK -336.9, BVAEB -181.7 million euros), the self-employed fund will probably be the only one to show a positive result in the coming years (2024: 30.2, 2025: 37.8, 2026: 39.8, 2027: 36.4 million euros). In the outlook calculated up to 2027, the other two funds threaten with a continuous minus.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
