Andreas Gassen, chair of Germany’s National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), has raised self-pay private consultations as a route for publicly insured patients to avoid longer waits under planned fee cuts. The proposal would turn a dispute over practice budgets into an access issue: faster care could come with an out-of-pocket bill.
Gassen told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland, according to Der Spiegel, that private-consultation offers were likely. Patients covered by statutory insurance who chose them would be treated outside their insurance coverage as self-payers. He said this would allow practices to finance cases beyond their budget.
Der Spiegel reports that the government’s savings programme for statutory health insurance is intended to curb rising contributions. Gassen said some specialties could lose up to 25% of revenue under the planned cuts, and named ear, nose and throat medicine, orthopaedics, cardiology, radiology and rheumatology as particularly affected. If a practice budget is exhausted, patients may have to wait until the next quarter for an appointment at their preferred practice, he said.
Practices need sustainable payment for the care they provide. Gassen also suggested a quota for medically urgent appointments if insurers guaranteed payment. But his proposed self-pay route puts the immediate cost of avoiding a wait on patients. That risks making access depend on both medical need and capacity on one side, and personal means on the other.
Der Spiegel does not state how broadly such appointments would be offered, which specialties they would cover or what they would cost. It also reports no response from the government, statutory insurers or patient groups. Gassen’s intervention nevertheless makes the political choice stark: efforts to restrain insurance contributions should not make a faster doctor’s appointment something patients must purchase privately.
Sources
- Der Spiegel · Source date: 2026-11-14
Independent editorial content. WUA is not affiliated with any political party. 2026-11-14