German doctors' association warns of longer waits for specialists — The Local Germany

In Germany, patients with statutory health insurance may face longer waits for appointments with specialist doctors due to planned changes to healthcare system financing. This is reported by The Local Germany, citing Germany's National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV).

The country is introducing extensive cost-cutting measures to close funding gaps and stabilize the statutory health insurance system. The KBV believes these steps could affect outpatient care and the availability of appointments with specialists.

Cutbacks in the outpatient sector

KBV chair Andreas Gassen told Bild that more than 50 million appointments had been cancelled due to cuts in funding for outpatient care. According to him, the shortage of available appointments for people with statutory insurance may worsen in the coming years.

According to the KBV's estimate, planned cuts in the outpatient sector will amount to around €2.7 billion in 2027 alone. A significant share of the savings is planned to be achieved by limiting expenditure.

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Fixed number of appointments

The association also criticized plans to require medical practices to report a fixed number of vacant appointment slots for patients with statutory insurance to the appointment service. Practices currently determine themselves how many available slots to submit to the system, but from 2027 they are to be assigned a certain number.

Gassen said that reserving a fixed quota for the central appointment service would not necessarily speed up patients' access to a doctor. In his view, appointments reserved for the service may no longer be available directly at practices. He called for increased funding for outpatient care to create additional opportunities for patient appointments.

Politicians from the CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party of Germany called for measures to ensure that access to a specialist does not depend on the type of health insurance. SPD health policy spokesperson Christos Panzazis said that medical urgency should be the decisive criterion.