BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The CDU Economic Council’s proposal to abolish health insurance and dentist payments is widely rejected in the CDU, right up to the leadership. “Individual suggestions such as the recent debate about dental costs are not productive,” said CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann to “stern”. CDU Health Minister Nina Warken stated: “The demand to remove dental treatment from the GKV’s catalog of services will not be implemented.” Deputy government spokesman Steffen Meyer had already said: “There are no such plans in the federal government.”
Linnemann: Don’t jeopardize willingness to reform
The CDU Economic Council, an association made up primarily of entrepreneurs that is not part of the party itself, had called for comprehensive cuts in social and insurance benefits. The biggest stir since the weekend has been the demand to no longer pay for dental visits through the statutory health insurance contribution system. Then the insured would have to take out private insurance and pay for it. Warken said: “I rule that out because it would be a departure from the core idea of our solidarity system and contradicts the goal of strengthening prevention.”
The demands are justified by the fact that social contributions should not increase and economic forces should be unleashed. Linnemann replied that Germany needs a future agenda, but it would not be in the interests of the solidarity community “if you no longer support prevention and early detection.” It has been a long time since there has been such a high level of willingness to go along with reforms, said Linnemann. “But this will only lead to success if there is an overall concept that takes all people into account, including us politicians and does not single out specific groups.”
Campaigner against proposal for cuts
For the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU top candidate Gordon Schnieder, the dentist demands are “absurd”. He told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “We can only get Germany forward if all 80 million people take part.”
The SPD, consumer advocates, large statutory health insurance companies and the central dental associations had rejected the demands of the Economic Council. The president of the social association VdK Germany, Verena Bentele, also warned: “One reason for the electoral success of right-wing populist forces is precisely these discussions that constantly talk the welfare state into the ground.”/bw/DP/nas
