DAK boss Storm praises coalition plans-and warns

Mr. Storm, you are the head of DAK health, which is one of the largest German health insurance companies with well over five million insured persons. How do you rate the previous results of the coalition negotiations of Union and SPD in the field of health policy?
Andreas Storm: We see the previous negotiation results very positively because the next government wants to tackle big problems in the right way. The suggestions of the negotiating group offer the opportunity for a turn In health and nursing policyfinally to achieve a sustainable and qualitative strengthening of our health care for people. There are three central aspects: The spiral of premium increases in health and long-term care insurance must be stopped. Here I see the right approaches. Second, we need efficiency increases on the output side. With the proposal of a so -called primary medicine system, the decisive course for better patient control is set. And the parties promise a sustainable reform of long -term care insurance. If all of these points are actually anchored in the coalition agreement, this would really be a great step forward for the health system.

What do these suggestions bring to the patients except financial issues? Do you have to get a referral to the family doctor for each specialist appointment in the future?
Storm: When the intended reforms come like this, the patients will have the greatest benefit and feel this several times. You would benefit from better care quality, better patient control through the so -called primary doctor system and from a modernized hospital landscape. The primary doctor system has a much better way through the thicket of the healthcare system. The aim is to better control the patient, so that treatments are seamlessly coordinated – from the family doctor to specialists to physiotherapy. In return, the patients receive a terminals. The aim is to get the completely unsatisfactory, often months -long waiting times under control for legally insured persons.

How is that supposed to succeed?
Storm: If you do not receive a specialist appointment, you should get the right to an outpatient specialist care in the hospital. Overall, this will lead to saving costs through targeted control and at the same time ensuring better quality.

Union and SPD Promise the health insurers more money, especially for the costs of supplying citizens. That had already promised the traffic lights and not met …
Storm: The health insurance companies receive only about a third of the funds from the federal budget that they need to provide health care for citizens’ gates. There is a financing gap of around ten billion euros here. Since this is a task for society as a whole, it should be financed from tax funds. The same applies to the social security of caring relatives. Four billion euros are planned in the coalition paper. These non -insurance benefits must be financed from the tax fund and not only by employees, pensioners and employers.

To what extent would the contributors benefit from it?
Storm: At the turn of the year we had the highest increase in premium in the history of the Federal Republic. Short-term stabilization is only possible if health and long-term care insurance benefits are sufficiently financed by tax funds. Without these funds, renewed massive premium increases would be inevitable. The necessary structural reforms, such as the new primary doctor system, the emergency and hospital reform, take time to work. Without tax financing, social security threatens another contribution tunami. The suggestions of the Union and SPD working group can break the premium spiral that turns further upwards.

The health politicians of the Union and the SPD quickly agreed, but their plans cost many billions. Do you think that the financial politicians and party leaders just wave through it?
Storm: In the short term, the proposals cost additional money until the reforms take effect, but in the medium term they will lead to large savings. It is therefore important that the parties are now consistently implementing the proposals of their health politicians, because this is the only way to achieve a contribution stability until the end of the election period. This is crucial for the upcoming reforms in health and long-term care insurance. A large reform of long -term care insurance will not be accepted if there is a risk of an increase in premiums. Above all, it is also about the economy, which after three years finally has to get out of stagnation. Further increasing wage costs would be poison for the upswing.

In contrast to the traffic light, the new coalition no longer wants to put the 25 billion costs of the clinic reform alone to the health insurers, but rather finance it in the special fund for infrastructure. Does that affect the contributions?
Storm: The health sector contributes almost 13 percent to the total economic output of the Federal Republic. It is therefore absolutely justified that the planned 500 billion euros for infrastructure and climate protection will flow to hospital reform. Otherwise, the cash registers would have had to increase the contributions by 0.15 percentage points again next year.

The parties promise cloudy a « large nursing reform ». What would be the most necessary points?
Storm: We need a reform that brings improvements for those affected in three central areas: firstly, a limitation of the own shares in nursing homes, secondly, better support for caring relatives and thirdly, overcoming the rigid separation between outpatient and inpatient care. Here, too, I see the right approaches in the paper paper.

This weekend, the party leaders are negotiating about the suggestions of the working groups. What do you want, should the bosses listen to their health politicians and provide the necessary funds for this?
Storm: The party leaders should now make a clever priorities. The stabilization of contributions in health and long-term care insurance must be one of the top priorities of the future federal government. The loss of trust would be huge if the next coalition does not meet expectations. Trust in the German health system and care has already suffered greatly. International comparative studies also show that the performance of the German healthcare system has decreased significantly in recent years. In order to reverse this trend, we need stable contributions and structural reforms to improve the quality of the supply.

To person: Andreas Storm (60) has been CEO of the health insurance company DAK health for seven years. Previously, the economist was, among others, CDU State Chancellor and Minister of Social Affairs in Saarland.