On the postponement of the Bundestag vote on the health reform of the black-red coalition, Dr. Helmut Isringhaus, health policy spokesman of the FDP Saar, declares:
"The fact that Black-Red is postponing the vote is not a sign of special care, but a confession of failure. This reform is ill-conceived, timid, and misses the real problems. It solves nothing but merely redistributes the costs – at the expense of contributors, patients, states, districts, and municipalities."
According to the FDP Saar, the reform lacks any real regulatory core. Instead of restructuring care, reducing bureaucracy, eliminating perverse incentives, and establishing honest financing, only co-payments, contributions, and remunerations are being tinkered with once again.
„This is not a healthcare reform, but short-sighted patchwork. Those who only cap costs but do not address the causes of the cost explosion gradually ruin care and simultaneously create the next deficits,“ said Isringhaus.
The situation of hospitals is particularly dire. Many locations are coming under increasing economic pressure. If municipal hospitals are ultimately supported with taxpayer money, district levies, or state subsidies, while non-profit organizations bleed out under the same conditions, a massive imbalance arises.
„It must not be the case that hospital planning effectively depends on who has the longer financial breath. Municipal hospitals are supported with public funds, while other providers are strangled. This is not health planning, this is politically organized distortion of competition,” explains Isringhaus.
A necessary optimization of the hospital landscape must not be enforced by the bankruptcy of individual operators. What is crucial are clear criteria: Who offers the best medical quality? Who operates economically? Which locations are accessible to the population within an acceptable time?
„Hospital structure must not be created through cold market elimination. If decisions are not based on quality, efficiency, and accessibility, but solely on who runs out of money first, politics is abdicating its responsibility,“ emphasizes Isringhaus.
This development is particularly dangerous for Saarland. Hospitals, medical practices, pharmacies, therapeutic service providers, and care facilities are already under massive pressure. If the federal government does not provide reliable funding and the state does not fulfill its investment responsibilities, the consequences will fall directly on the municipalities and ultimately on the citizens.
The FDP Saar also criticizes that non-insurance benefits are still not consistently financed from tax funds. The statutory health and long-term care insurance is being misused as a shadow budget of the federal government.
“Why tasks of overall social responsibility should be paid for specifically by those with statutory health insurance remains unanswered. The grand coalition of black and red avoids the truth: Without honest tax financing for non-insurance benefits, every reform becomes a sham,” said Isringhaus.
The FDP Saar calls for a fundamental realignment: non-insurance benefits must be financed through taxes, hospital planning and financing must be merged, and investment costs must no longer be shifted onto hospitals and nursing homes. Genuine structural reforms are necessary to ensure quality, efficiency, and accessibility, thereby reducing the overall costs of the healthcare system.
The FDP Saar calls on the Saarland state government to put pressure on the Bundesrat. Saarland must not simply allow this patchwork to pass. It must insist that a genuine reform finally emerges from a savings law that comes at the expense of patients and municipalities.
Isringhaus concludes: “Black-Red is not just postponing a vote. Black-Red is pushing the problems into the future and the costs onto the municipalities. This is not a reform, it is political cowardice at the expense of patients, contributors, and local self-government.”
Further information and current press photos for download can be found in our press portal.
