Guest patients in Vienna

Hacker: “No, the Viennese can’t pay for it!”

(Bild: krone.tv )

Vienna's City Councillor for Health Peter has caused a stir with his statement that guest patients from Lower Austria and Burgenland would cost Viennese taxpayers 450 million euros a year. However, Hacker's invitation to the representatives of the two provinces to seek talks with him has so far been negated.

This has led him to think aloud about whether there could be two waiting lists in future: One for patients from Vienna and another for patients from the other provinces. Is it realistic for this proposal to be implemented? Hacker in an interview on krone.tv: "Is it realistic to do it: Yes. Is it planned in the next few weeks or months? No. And I still assume that all the laws and agreements in the federal states have now slowly been read and that they will perhaps take me up on my offer to have a discussion and propose solutions. I find it intolerable that this is being carried out on the backs of patients."

No agreement on financial equalization
Hans Peter Doskozil from Burgenland and Ludwig Schleritzko from Lower Austria have recently clearly rejected Hacker's approach and referred to the financial equalization system, which regulates the sensitive issue. In the interview, Hacker then read out the current Federal Law Gazette of the Republic of Austria on the "Organization and Financing of the Healthcare System". This regulates the compensation for domestic guest patients under Article 41. Hacker, quoting from the article: "For the duration of this agreement, no compensation will be paid to domestic guest patients over and above the compensation paid by the provincial health funds. Bilateral agreements regarding guest patients are possible."

Problem cannot be "breathed away"
 Hacker, outraged: "I have no idea what agreements they are talking about. But one thing is clear: we have explicitly NOT made any agreements about guest patients in the financial equalization scheme. The bottom line is that there is a balance of 450 million for guest patients, for which we receive nothing. And that is the point: the Viennese taxpayer pays 450 million euros per year from the money that is only dedicated to Vienna. And I ask for your understanding that we cannot assume that we will simply breathe this away. No, the Viennese can't pay that and they don't want to pay it either."

Watch the full interview in the video above!