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Berlin The rate is high: hardly a week goes by without the Federal Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach (SPD), presenting a new initiative or a new law. Apparently relieved of all the disputes in the coalition, the minister announced again over the weekend Photographnewspaper promotes its Healthy Heart Act.
We want to use a voucher system to encourage children and young people, people aged 25, 35 and 50 across Germany, to measure values: blood pressure, including the risk factor for diabetes, explained the minister. The project already received a lot of criticism from experts yesterday. The law was not available to the usual well-informed circles until tonight.
According to the report, people in Germany should participate more in preventive examinations. Vouchers for cardiac exams can be redeemed at pharmacies and doctors’ offices. We will do this later through the patient’s electronic medical record, said the minister in the Photograph. According to Lauterbach, the Heart Law should be presented before the summer holidays and come into force next year. It remains to be seen whether this is realistic, given the current political climate and next year’s federal elections.
The project apparently provides for cardiac exams for adults aged 25, 35 and 50. Tests should also be carried out in childhood and adolescence, for example, to find out whether there are hereditary reasons for lipid metabolism disorders. Medications to stop smoking and lower cholesterol levels (statins) should also be able to be prescribed more frequently.
But one thing is certain: according to almost all health experts, a restructuring of the health system towards greater prevention is urgently needed. Because it prevents illness and suffering and because it also saves costs in an increasingly aging society. However, such conversion is expensive. And there are a lot of adjustment screws that need to be adjusted.
Last week, Lauterbach introduced a bill to strengthen public health. Starting in January, a Federal Institute for Prevention and Education in Medicine (BIPAM) will provide health education throughout the country and take care of the prevention of non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, dementia or cardiovascular diseases. Germany spends more on healthcare than any other EU country, but its life expectancy is still only average, according to the minister. There is a lack of effective prevention; our system is too focused on treating existing diseases.
The Scientific Council, which advises the federal and state governments, also defended a turnaround in May. Hundreds of thousands of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer could be avoided through prevention. Prevention is the key to maintaining society’s efficiency and ensuring supply. The aging of society and the lack of qualified workers are already straining our healthcare system, emphasized President Wolfgang Wick. What is needed is solidarity between politics, science, doctors, health insurance companies and the media.
O Scientific Council We agree: There is no shortage of individual results in health prevention. On the contrary, there is a lack of implementation and networking between stakeholders. A different distribution of existing resources in the health system is necessary. Health insurance companies that invest heavily in prevention should expect financial disadvantages. In 2023, statutory health insurance funds spent around 584 million euros on health promotion. This was nine percent more than the previous year and an increase for the second year in a row. The Scientific Council demanded that medicine, health insurance companies and politics change course more forcefully in order to make prevention more attractive. Furthermore, more health data, including from healthy people, would need to be collected, networked and used.
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In the opinion of the Scientific Council, economic incentives are also necessary, for example through the promotion of healthy foods. However, every citizen is also obliged: Even the Fifth Social Code states that people are jointly responsible for their health, through their lifestyle and participation in prevention, said the outgoing president of the German Ethics Council, Alena Buyx. Everyone should ask themselves: What can I do preventatively to avoid needing care for as long as possible? Financial provision may also become more important in the future, at least for those who can afford it.
But the bill does not assume this. The chairman of the board of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians also criticized this (KBV). The plans of the Federal Minister of Health, Prof. Karl Lauterbach, for a heart law, which have become well-known in the media, contain positive approaches such as regular additional check-ups. However, a truly consistent implementation of the idea of prevention is lacking, said Andras Gassen in an opening statement. There needs to be more information about heart-healthy living in schools. Through more preventive exams, apparently planned by the minister, we could also reach patients who do not immediately fall into the risk group, but who still have high cholesterol or blood sugar levels.
The minister’s subtle criticism of health insurance companies that their previous prevention programs had not been quality tested was challenged by the president of the Association of Replacement Insurance Funds (vdek) Ulrike Elsner: GKV offers its policyholders easy access to 110,000 different prevention courses. The quality and effectiveness of each individual course has been tested nationwide by the GKV institution itself Central Prevention Testing CenterElsner said in a statement.
This testing center ensures that the courses offered are taught by certified experts. The insured can choose offers from four areas of activity: exercise, nutrition, stress and resource management and substance use. At the request of the legislator, prevention activities were significantly expanded in 2015, Elsner emphasized. © kna/bee/dpa/aerzteblatt.de