Medical painting in Lower Austria: for a fee from April!

Medical painting in Lower Austria: for a fee from April!

Niederösterreich, Österreich - In Lower Austria there is a massive change in skin cancer screening: From April 1, 2025, the control of birthmarks will only be offered privately, as the Kurier . The outrage among patient lawyers is understandable, since this change means that dermatologists can no longer process the examination through the health insurance company. This relevant change to the previous regulations where the costs have been borne by the health insurance company is another example of the increasingly privately financed health care in Austria, which has already found its way into other federal states such as Styria and Tyrol.

The health insurance profession in Lower Austria plans a change that could burden each patient with costs between 60 and 90 euros. Dagmar Fedra-Machacek from the Medical Association advises to be examined by an internist before patients may be transferred to a dermatologist. The transfer will continue to be taken over by the health insurance, should a risk of skin cancer. Patient attorney Michael Prunbauer vehemently criticizes this decision and points out that the early detection of skin cancer, which is made possible by these routine examinations, is crucial for the chances of recovery.

scientific objections and living uncertainty

While the discussion about the changeover is heated up, there are also voices from science: Cancer researcher Christian Posch considers the annual maternity control to be "scientifically not sensible" and advises to only regularly examine risk operations, such as people with family preload. Andreas Krauter from the Austrian Health Insurance Fund regretted the uncertainty among the population and confirms that talks are going to clarify the situation. From now on it is clear that patients have to dig deeper into their pockets for the maternity control, which could have a major impact on the accessibility of the preventive examinations.