CDU health expert Hendrik Streeck questioned more expensive treatments for patients with little chance of recovery. The reason is the increasing costs in the health care system. He referred to personal experiences surrounding his father’s death.
Hendrik Streeck, a CDU health politician and federal government medicines commissioner, raised the question of whether expensive drugs should be prescribed to the very elderly.
On the talk show “Freedom of Expression” on WELT TV, Streeck said that “clearer and more binding guidelines are needed in self-medication that certain drugs should not always be tried – there are just phases in life where you should no longer use only certain drugs.”
Streeck pointed to advanced cancer and the theoretical case that the new study would promise a ten percent reduction in mortality. “But if you do that to a 100-year-old person, then the question is: Do you really want this expensive drug,” Streeck said.
Streeck refers to a personal experience surrounding his own father’s death: “I had an experience with my father when he died of lung cancer: so much money was spent in the last few weeks when he died. And it didn’t help. The newest therapy came out. It didn’t help. And he spent more money there than he ever did in his entire life on the health care system. That’s just the question. That falls under medical self-administration.”
The catalog of mandatory health insurance benefits is determined by the so-called Joint Federal Committee. This shared self-governing body within the health care system includes impartial representatives of physicians, health insurance companies, hospitals, and members. Patient representatives have the right to consult, but do not have the right to vote.
Health costs amount to more than half a trillion euros
In its initial estimates in April, the Federal Statistical Office assumed that health spending in 2024 would amount to around 538 billion euros – an increase of 7.5 percent compared to 2023. Health spending is expected to increase again this year. Mandatory health insurance companies complain of “uninterrupted spending dynamics.”
To control costs, the average additional contribution increased from 2.5 to 2.9 percent. By increasing the contribution assessment limit to 5,812 euros, high-income earners will also be asked to pay more. Private health insurance premiums have also increased massively recently.
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