Austria's government is planning an attack on the high disease costs!

Austria's government is planning an attack on the high disease costs!

Austria's government has decided to counteract the high costs of sick leave. In 2023, the costs for sick leave amounted to alarming 5.3 billion euros, since employees were disregarded for 15.4 days on average. In order to counter this cost factor more efficiently, the government is planning a "risk-oriented control approach", which, among other things, intensified the controls and the setting of additional staff, such as kosmo.at reported. In particular, the question of which savings could be realized by not paying the first day of the disease remains open.

measures in neighboring countries

you look at Germany, said Oliver Bäte, the head of the Allianz insurance, the proposal not to pay the wages on the first day of the disease, which could bring savings of up to 40 billion euros there. Spain also has to struggle with an increase in sick leave, which the country's labor minister rated as "not positive". In Austria, some companies also call for a medical sick leave only from the third day of the sick.

In a related topic, the Federal Government in Germany also addressed the financial challenges of statutory health insurance (GKV). This is characterized by significant uncertainties in financial planning, in particular with regard to the development of expenditure, which has increased by over 20 billion euros since 2015. In 2023, GKV's expenditure for hospital treatments was around 94 billion euros. This shows the urgency to take measures to stabilize the systems in both Austria and Germany, as Bundesag.de reported.