DistantNews
Support us
🇦🇹 Austria /Health & Science

Vienna ÖVP Criticizes High Health Costs in Dispute Over Out-of-Area Patients

From Der Standard · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Vienna’s ÖVP has criticized what it describes as high health-care costs linked to patients from other provinces, particularly spending outside direct patient care.
  • Economist Pichlbauer said Vienna’s costs in that area were well above those of other Austrian provinces.
  • SPÖ Health Councillor Peter Hacker’s office rejected the comparison as distorted, saying Vienna includes pension costs under “Other.”

Vienna’s ÖVP is again attacking the city’s health-care spending in the dispute over patients who come from outside the province. The criticism focuses on costs away from direct patient care, which economist Pichlbauer says stand well above those recorded in other Austrian provinces.

Peter Hacker, Vienna’s SPÖ health councillor, rejects that reading. His office describes the calculation as “distorted,” arguing that Vienna includes pension costs under the category “Other.”

distorted

· Peter Hacker’s officeThe office rejected the ÖVP’s comparison of Vienna’s health-care costs.

The renewed clash comes only two weeks after Hacker and Lower Austria’s ÖVP state councillor Anton Kasser appeared together at a rare joint news conference. They said they were moving in the right direction on the long-running dispute, although both acknowledged that negotiations and further discussions would still be needed before a solution could be reached.

Kasser said at the time, “In the meantime, we have found a lot of common ground.” The latest argument over the figures shows that the tentative rapprochement between the SPÖ and ÖVP did not last long.

In the meantime, we have found a lot of common ground.

· Anton KasserThe Lower Austria councillor described progress at the earlier joint news conference.
About this summary

Originally published by Der Standard in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog