German Funds' Spending: Seehofer Gets Tough

14 July 1996

The politically-ambitious German Health Minister, Horst Seehofer, has given the national public-sector health funds until the third quarter of 1996 to stop spending "several billion Deutschemarks" on health care annually. He said that when the funds failed to meet their responsibility to ensure that patients' premiums remained stable, then the government had to assume responsibility, and listed a series of criticisms of the funds.

First, he said, expenditures on health cures have exploded, although there is a legally-fixed budget for this area. Then, despite the fact that there is no legal basis for providing health care for German patients abroad at the expense of the health service, the funds are spending increasing amounts on foreign health treatment.

Mr Seehofer listed several other areas in which spending had risen sharply, including patient transport, medical aids and the funding of health-promoting holidays. He said he was constantly receiving information about abuse of the system, including the provision of 500 marks for a trip to the carnival in Venice.

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