Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) has responded to demands from the health care system and now also wants money for 500 additional panel doctors to relieve the overcrowded hospitals.
“It’s doable and affordable,” he said in an interview with the “Kleine Zeitung” (Saturday edition). The positions could be financed, for example, by a “millionaire tax”, which the coalition partner ÖVP has always rejected.
Wealth tax “a story of its own”
The 500 additional doctors in the established area would mean that the hospitals would be relieved, said Rauch. The health system is good, but “organized extremely complicated”. The basic problem is different financing pots. “I’m trying to improve that. 500 additional panel doctors are needed, more primary care centers are needed, an offer is needed where I know as a patient that I won’t be sent in circles.”
The minister sees two options here: “I see federal reform on the horizon, but not in the next hundred years. Or financial equalization. It’s now being negotiated and I’m relatively confident that we’ll get something done.” Rauch answered the question of financing: “What speaks against a millionaire’s tax if the wealth is unfairly distributed? But that is a story of its own.”
