The Chamber of Labor pushed for an “immediate financial injection” for the Austrian health insurance fund on Sunday. With the merger of the regional health insurance funds, the ÖGK was given a “huge financial rucksack” and the corona pandemic had exacerbated the situation. The 60 million euros promised by the Minister of Health Rudolf Anschober (Greens) would not be enough by far, stated the Upper Austrian AK President Johann Kalliauer in a broadcast.
There is a turquoise-green application in parliament for an ÖGK Covid 19 grant law. He was on the plenary agenda on December 11, but was pushed back to the health committee – because there is still no agreement on the amount of support.
According to the management forecast, the ÖGK expects a loss of almost 200 million euros this year. For 2021, the health insurance company fears an even greater slump. Because a large part of the deferrals granted because of the Corona crisis must be written off. This would mean that the ÖGK would be missing an additional 320 million euros in the next year and the year after that. According to Kalliauer, the balance sheet loss could add up to two billion euros by 2024.
But Minister Anschober has only promised a fixed amount of 60 million euros so far, and the government only vaguely promises in the application a “target-linked payment for a limited period”. “What the government is doing here is grossly negligent,” criticized Kalliauer. He called for a concrete commitment from the federal government to take back the burdens from the merger and fully finance the corona failures.
