The Director General of the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK), Bernhard Wurzer, has defended the health insurance reform of the former ÖVP-FPÖ government, despite massive criticism from the Court of Auditors. A crude report complained that the “patient billion” promoted at the time never materialized and that additional costs were incurred instead. Ultimately, the merger will be a success, Wurzer said on Sunday.
The only thing one could accuse the political representatives of at the time was that the “patient billion” was promised too soon, Wurzer admitted in the ORF “ZiB 2”. The pandemic is also responsible for the successes not coming as quickly as promised. Other projects, such as moving to one building, would also go ahead and take effect at a later date.
Extra effort instead of saving
According to the auditors, what was once a Turquoise Blue “lighthouse project” never materialized. In fact, the ‘patient billion’ should have benefited the insured directly. Instead of the savings, there was an additional charge of EUR 214.95 million. The reason for this is, among other things, higher costs for administration and IT.
“Lighthouse project turned submarine”
ÖGB chairman Wolfgang Katzian sees in the RH report not only a confirmation of the criticism of the trade union federation in the report, the Court of Audit also criticized the short assessment phase for the health insurance reform. “The former ‘flagship project’ has turned into a submarine that must now be stopped as soon as possible,” says Katzian.
For the ÖGB boss, it is now the task of Social Affairs Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) to take the report seriously, become active and enter into a dialogue with the workers’ representatives. Katzian mainly wants to ensure that measures, such as performance harmonization, are taken as quickly as possible. “It’s not enough for him to say he’s looking for savings potential that no one has yet found.” There are also structural problems.
Criticism of Staffing
According to “profil”, the Court of Auditors also criticizes the staffing levels at the health insurance fund and the umbrella organization as being non-transparent in the current raw report. This mainly concerns the office manager of the new umbrella organisation, an FPÖ-related investment banker. Documents on decision criteria were also shredded for the study.
Source: Krone
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