New argument about money – parent-child pass: only private services in the future?

There had been no change in physician fees since the late 1990s. This had sparked great anger among the medical representatives. Threatened to withdraw from the contract, which gave a great impetus to the reform of the measure already enshrined in the government program of the ÖVP and the Greens. The federal government set a budget and the chamber and social security started negotiating.

millions are missing
But the doctors are once again dissatisfied. “The available pot is based on an assessment by the umbrella organization (the social security institution, memorandum) of January 2022. Since then – as we know – a lot has happened, causing inflation to rise every month,” explains Edgar Wutscher. , vice president of the Austrian Medical Association and president of the Federal Curia of Physicians, on Tuesday. As a result, four million euros were missing.

Instead of intensive preliminary consultations, the Ministry of Health failed to do so, although the parent-child pass is financed for two thirds from the Family Charges Equalization Fund (FLAF) and only for one third from social security. The umbrella organization and the medical association were presented with a fait accompli: “We were asked to enter into negotiations where at the beginning you didn’t even know what amount we were talking about,” Wutscher criticized. Now the contract for the parent-child passport examinations is threatening to be terminated: “This threat must finally be taken seriously by politicians, the warning light is already burning deep red here.”

Chairman of the Medical Association, Johannes Steinhart, also appealed to politicians. The ministry must now “finally get to work” and save the successful mother-child passport model by making – another – four million euros available, which are necessary for the valorisation after almost 30 years. It cannot be the case that the department “deliberately lets care for mothers and children fail because it does not make available the budgetary resources that are still needed for this”.

Research into future private benefits?
Previously, the “Salzburger Nachrichten” had reported that everything now boiled down to the fact that the medical representatives canceled the parent-child passport. That would mean that patients would have to pay for these studies as a private service in the future – with the option of a later partial refund. A decision will be made in mid-March at a Federal Curia meeting of the Medical Association.

The Chamber of Medicine has already informed the Ministry of Family Affairs, which is responsible for the FLAF, and the Ministry of Health in writing about the possibility of waiving the parent-child card. The health service was surprised in a written statement about the procedure. After all, intensive preliminary discussions preceded the decision in November. At that time, the budget volume was determined with the medical association. They were not responsible for further applications for funding, saying only: “The Ministry of Health will again try to find a joint solution between the Medical Association, the Social Insurance and the Family Expenses Settlement Fund administered by the Ministry of Family Affairs.”

The umbrella organization of social security institutions does not want to comment on the ongoing negotiations, but points out that the framework has been determined by the ministry. Andreas Huss, employee representative of the Austrian health insurance fund, recalled what he thought was the strange position of the social security funds in this case. After all, you have the thankless task of negotiating an end result because of the given framework. “As far as we are concerned, the parent-child card contains too little anyway. We also want to have the children’s teeth and an initial speech therapy examination there.”