Mattle Announces Details on the Reform of the Cash Register Reform

Mattle stated that he does not aim to return to 21 health insurance funds, but rather to a corporate structure with decision-making regional offices. It is necessary to have "more regional decision-making structures within - with real budget and design competence," reported the "Tiroler Tageszeitung" in its Thursday edition.

Health Insurance Reform: Tyrol's Governor Mattle for More Regionality

According to Mattle, he favors regional budgets within the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK), because "contribution funds must have an impact where they are generated." The governor also identifies a problem in the centralization of decision-making structures and calls for more regionality. "The lost proximity to insured persons and service providers also calls health actors in Tyrol - from doctors to municipalities - into action, who complain about more bureaucracy, lack of contact persons, and long waiting times," explained Mattle. The Tyrolean ÖVP leader also criticized that, for example, long-term therapies for people with disabilities in Tyrol, unlike in other federal states, are not financed by the ÖGK and therefore the state has to step in. This "unequal treatment" must be eliminated.

The Tyrolean governor initiated the debate on Sunday in the "Pressestunde" by describing the reform implemented under the government of former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) as a "mistake." Chancellor Christian Stocker (ÖVP) has meanwhile spoken out against a fundamental reversal of the health insurance reform. Conversely, it must be questioned whether the goals of the reform at that time have been achieved. In the other federal states, the criticism was mainly shared by SPÖ representatives, but - more cautiously - also by Upper Austria's Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP). Health Minister Korinna Schumann (SPÖ) referred to a planned evaluation.

(APA/Red)

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