“Box office smash”? – Visits to private doctors have tripled in four years

The number of visits to private doctors has increased exponentially. In just four years, numbers have tripled. While in 2019 there were approximately 100,000 applications for reimbursement of gynecologist consultations from regional health insurers, in 2022 there were already approximately 300,000. The development among pediatricians and general practitioners is similar (see graph).

SPÖ: Established area starving
The SPÖ requested these figures through a parliamentary question to the Ministry of Health. For the Social Democrats, the effects of the ‘cash-busting’ under turquoise blue are clearly visible here. “Starving the established public sector has made waiting times longer and more and more people are paying out of their own pockets for healthcare services that should be public and self-evident in the Austrian healthcare system.” The average waiting time for an appointment with a gynecologist with a health insurance contract is currently 28 days, the question further states.

“All promises made by the FPÖ and ÖVP have been broken: instead of savings and a billion for patients, there are additional costs for the health insurer and the insured. Instead of the promised harmonization of services, there is now more dual medicine,” criticizes SPÖ club president Philip Kucher. The SPÖ advocates a guaranteed appointment with a specialist within 14 days. To this end, the health hotline 1450 will be expanded into a platform for booking appointments.