Vice Chairman Andreas Huss: “The minus will only be in two digits”.
The loss of the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) for 2020 is likely to be significantly lower than originally feared. The vice chairman and employee representative Andreas Huss announced on Thursday that the minus would be less than 100 million euros. In August, a deficit of 447 million euros was still expected, and most recently in November 194 million.
“I can cautiously give the all-clear, the situation has developed more favorably. Although the final figures from the last quarter are still missing, we assume that the minus will only be in double digits,” said Huss the “Oberösterreichische Nachrichten” (online) . According to Huss, the reason for the lower minus in the previous year is that although income has fallen massively as a result of the Corona crisis, the insured also went to the doctor much less, underwent fewer preventive examinations and went to cure or rehab less. As a result, the expenses of the ÖGK decreased enormously. But Huss assumes that a lot of this will be made up for this year. The next forecast and balance sheet will be published on February 15th.
The final figures for the past year will not be available until spring. The social insurance recently agreed with the government to decide on financial aid from the federal government. Huss does not want a “one-off payment, but an overall package”. A long-term solution is needed, such as a risk structure compensation between the civil service insurance not affected by the crisis and the ÖGK as well as an increase in the state fictitious employer contribution for pensioners in the ÖGK.
