Doctors' opinion: Health Minister Rösler almost two grades ahead of Ulla Schmidt
22.12.2009 10:04
CompuGROUP-GesundheitsMONITOR publishes a representative medical survey
German doctors agree. Almost 80% (77.3%) assume that their doctor colleague Dr. med. Philipp Rösler, as Minister of Health, will be able to cope better with this challenging task - because he is a doctor. This emerges from the current Health MONITOR by CompuGROUP, Medical Tribune and Rhein-Zeitung, which was published in Koblenz on Friday. 440 practicing doctors were surveyed by telephone between the end of November and the beginning of December.
And it gets even better for the 36-year-old young minister with the difficult position when it comes to supporting doctors and therefore colleagues: When asked about a school grade for the achievements of his predecessor in office, Ulla Schmidt, the resident doctors only opt for a wafer-thin one 4- (4.48). Minister Rösler, on the other hand, has a 2 in front of the decimal point (2.75). A clear trend.
Germany's doctors with optimistic reserve
But not all doctors want to make a commitment today. While more than eight out of ten of Ulla Schmidt were confident of making an assessment without much thought, it was the case with Dr. med. Philipp Rösler exactly the opposite. Despite all the optimism due to the undoubted medical expertise of their colleague on the government bench, most doctors are still cautious and would like to wait for concrete results first - many with reference to the "first 100 days".
Shortly before Christmas: concrete “minister’s wish list” from German doctors
However, this reluctance turns into the opposite as soon as the questions turn to a specific “wish list” for the new health minister: one in three doctors (29.6%) sees reducing bureaucracy in the supply of medicines as the top priority, one in four (23.4%) would like to change something about health insurance financing. Measures against the regional shortage of doctors (13.8%) as well as securing the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) and the collective agreement system (8.4%) follow at a greater distance.
The topic of a patient protection law, which has always been highly controversial among the medical profession in terms of its usefulness, is only particularly important as an individual point to every hundredth doctor. It takes last place with 1.2% of entries. The new version of the fee schedule for private medical services (GOÄ) comes to 6.0%. At least 16.7% of those surveyed do not want to decide on individual points - despite the possibility of multiple entries. They consider all aspects equally important. A full “minister’s wish list” for Dr. med. So Philipp Rösler.
Proposal for a 'income-independent flat rate for insured persons' is accepted by doctors
The coalition's approach to a flat rate for insured people regardless of income is largely an open door for Germany's practicing physicians. An overwhelming majority of almost 60% (59.5%) considers this idea to be at least 'worth considering' (38.6%), 'expedient' (13.2%) or even 'spot on' (7.7%).
In short: The black-yellow coalition with doctor and health minister Dr. med. Just one month before the end of the “100 day grace period”, Philipp Rösler can rely on considerable support from Germany's practicing physicians. Many governments and (health) ministers of previous legislative periods could only have dreamed of this.