Coalition negotiations: A bit of what might still be

Content Page 1 — a bit of what might still be Page 2 — Deadlines: Restrictions on possibility of a fixed term Page 3 — Hardness control: More exceptions would be possibleRead on a page

This is new conflict since SPD party congress: at what points can SPD achieve even more in coalition negotiations than in exploratory talks? In particular, Social Democrats have looked at three areas.

Citizen Insurance: The too thick board

Even health professional politician Karl Lauterbach had to admit after probing that his party did not achieve anything in terms of citizen insurance. The SPD will have to get more out of coalition negotiations in order to persuade its members to agree to a possible coalition agreement.

The idea is that all legally insured and all those in future should be paid into a citizen's insurance. Previously privately insured people should be able to decide wher y want to join citizen insurance or stay with ir old cashier. In this way, SPD wants to combat often lamented two class medicine in Germany and to improve financial basis of statutory insurance.

The union rejects this. Their argument: competition between two insurance systems is conducive to medical progress. "We need to maintain competition of health insurance systems," calls on Roy Kühne, CDU healthcare politician, to talk with time online.

Health financing is strongly influenced by lobbying interests and diversity of approximately 100 coffers and groups of employees. A fundamental reform of medical fees is difficult – different systems are complicated, and a reform of outdated fee regime has been negotiating private health insurance and medical care for years. In coalition negotiations, union's resistance to change will be strong. The fact that citizens ' insurance is still coming is hardly conceivable.

But re is anor aspect of "two-class medicine": different medical fees. If you treat privately insured, doctors get more money for it than if you treat legally insured with same ailment. Therefore, former are often preferred and latter have to wait longer. The rules set out in fees regulations of doctors who negotiate medical association with private funds. Daring to rethink this "system of remuneration". The remuneration for treatment of legally insured would have to be increased accordingly, he said time online.

Conclusion: The SPD and Union will hardly approach this. It is probable, however, that fees for treatment of legally insured increase, in order to reduce ir discrimination, for example, in appointment.