Disputed bill

Are patients from Lower Austria “too expensive” for Vienna?

The healthcare system in the eastern region could soon be an acute patient itself.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com - Gorodenkoff Productions OU)

This turns the financial equalization agreements upside down: City of Vienna introduces a quota for "expensive surgery tourists" from Lower Austria and Burgenland. Does this threaten to put an end to the joint "Eastern Region"?

This is not neighborly help in action: because so-called "surgery tourists" allegedly cost the city of Vienna a billion euros a year, SPÖ city councillor Peter Hacker has announced the introduction of upper limits for guest patients - with the exception of acute cases. Patients who have to undergo scheduled operations are to be transferred to their home provinces of Lower Austria and Burgenland.

But Hacker's calculation is highly questioned. Vienna receives 26 percent of the funding for hospitals, while Lower Austria only receives 14.5 percent. Accordingly, the state of Lower Austria pays its share of almost 500 million euros per year for the compensation of guest patients in Vienna.

Ludwig Schleritzko, the ÖVP state councillor responsible for hospitals, said: "If Vienna now wants to draw up borders between the federal states, especially in the health sector, then we need to rethink our fundamental way of living together in Austria. In the health sector in particular, we should create synergies, work together and support each other at a time like this. I say this out of deep conviction and cannot emphasize it often enough: People's health is not suitable for exchanging political small change."

FPÖ: "There are many second home owners from Vienna in Lower Austria"
FPÖ health spokesperson Richard Punz has already drawn attention to the problem. He says: "Especially in the densely populated eastern region, it is often common for many Lower Austrians to go to a hospital in Vienna. Conversely, there are also plenty of Viennese with second homes in Lower Austria." The health issue will probably continue to cause feverish debates ...