Crisis meeting of the medical profession: ÖGK under pressure – financial future is shaky!

Crisis meeting of the medical profession: ÖGK under pressure – financial future is shaky!

The Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) is facing serious financial challenges: a loss of 800 million euros is forecast for 2025, which means that even bankruptcy cannot be ruled out, as employee representative Andreas Huss explained. These worrying figures led to a strong reaction from Johannes Steinhart, President of the Austrian Medical Association (ÖÄK), who expressed his astonishment at the ÖGK's financial management and raised grave concerns about the stability of an important pillar of health care in Austria. “This pillar will begin to wobble if the expected figures correspond to reality,” said Steinhart in his statement. He therefore called on those responsible to urgently take the necessary steps to secure a financial injection. Steinhart also announced a press conference on February 5th at which the practicing medical profession will inform about the current crisis situation in the health insurance area, which further underlines the urgency of the situation.

Looking back on a turbulent year

In 2023, the ÖGK was already struggling with a negative balance sheet result of 397 million euros, which accounts for 2.2 percent of the total budget of around 18.4 billion euros. Despite the challenges, such as a high inflation rate and an increase in frequencies in the private practice sector, a record number of 520 doctors were won for contracts with the ÖGK and numerous new primary care units (PVE) were founded, such as gesundheitskasse.at reported. However, the ÖGK plans to create 100 new checkout points across Austria through the Plus 100 initiative and expects an increase of 58 million euros for 2024, provided that economic development remains stable.

The upcoming developments and the announced press conference are eagerly awaited not only by the medical profession, but also by those insured, as they could offer further insight into the measures and the future security of healthcare in Austria. The calls for urgent action from medical representatives make the seriousness of the situation clear and could have far-reaching consequences for health care in the country.