ÖGK boss Huss: Immediate reforms for our health required!

ÖGK boss Huss: Immediate reforms for our health required!

Vienna, Österreich - Andreas Huss, chairman of the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK), clearly spoke out for a reform of the Austrian health system on July 18, 2025. He calls for more regional scope and improved financing of the public health insurance fund in order to counter the increasing challenges in healthcare. Huss expressed his concerns about the financial burden on private households, which spent a total of 11.5 billion euros in health services in 2024.

A central concern of Huss is the critical assessment of the merger of the regional health insurance companies, which was carried out in 2020 under the then Turkish-Blau federal government. He describes this step as a "big coup" and warns of a shift in power that endangers the interests of the insured. In particular, he emphasizes that the employees can no longer decide what is happening with their money today.

waiting times and supply bottlenecks

HUSS also criticizes the long waiting times and the difficulties of finding health insurance doctors in Austria. Together with Wolfgang Panhölzl, Head of the Social Insurance Department in the Vienna Chamber of Labor, Huss is urging the necessary structural reforms to improve the supply of the population. A central goal of these reforms is to relieve the hospitals that suffer from the pressure of more and more patients.

Another aspect that Huss appeals to is the situation in diabetes supply. Around 800,000 people suffer from diabetes in Austria, but only 100,000 of them are sufficiently cared for. Huss and Panhölzl propose to create diabetes centers and suitable primary care centers, in particular for the treatment of mental illnesses.

financing problem in healthcare

Financing in the Austrian healthcare system takes place via several channels. According to the information from Gesundheits.gv.at Most funds come from taxes and package contributions from the social security institutions. In addition, there are additional payments from patients and income from inpatient special classes. The main sources of financing are the federal states, social security and the federal government.

huss criticizes that instead of a so -called patient billion, which was originally supposed to be available to support the health insurers, funds have been lost in recent years and the administrative costs rose. This led to the fact that public health insurance was increasingly "starved" while private insurance benefits from the situation.

He therefore not only calls for regional responsibility, but also a revival of the basis of trust between insured and health providers. Huss criticizes the abolition of the regional health insurance funds and the associated lack of contact persons in the federal states. He urgently demands competent those who work with health officers or the medical association at eye level in order to better understand and operate regional needs.

An example of the existing problems leads Huss based on the Hotline 1450, which has different regional regulations. He assumes that better regional competence is necessary to be able to work more effectively in areas such as primary care centers and the availability of hospital beds.

Overall, it can be seen that Austrian health care faces considerable challenges that must be addressed by political decisions and structural reforms. Huss' suggestions for improvement could be seen as the first step in the right direction in order to improve health care for all citizens in Austria.