Doctors and Hospitals Shut Down Practices and Entrances: Wave of Protests Against Warken's Austerity Plans

According to the organizers, the background to the protest is the concern over significant cuts in physician reimbursements in the course of the federal government's planned healthcare reform. The medical professionals expect substantial revenue losses. They also see the care of patients threatened should the austerity package come into force in its current form. The aim of the action is to increase pressure on policymakers, as a spokesperson for the MEDI Baden-Württemberg doctors' association said, which had called for protests under the motto "Praxen bedroht - Patienten in Not." The general motto is: "Kein Geld. Keine Versorgung - Wir sind für Sie da. Solange wir noch können."

Baden-Württemberg: Rallies in Karlsruhe, Ulm, and Aalen

The protest is also expanding in Baden-Württemberg. Among other things, the main entrances at Klinikum Mittelbaden Baden-Baden/Balg and in Rastatt are to close for two hours. Protest marches and rallies are planned in Karlsruhe, Ulm, and Aalen, as a ver.di spokesperson announced. In Ulm and Aalen, the demonstrations will begin at 5 p.m. each. Up to 400 participants are expected at the rally in front of the ver.di trade union house in Karlsruhe at 5 p.m., including representatives of the trade unions, social welfare organizations, political parties, and the Karlsruhe Naturfreunde. Midwives are also planning demonstrations at the SLK hospitals in Heilbronn and Schwäbisch Hall. A similar action is planned for Friday noon in Calw at the healthcare campus, and a protest rally is also to take place in Wiesloch (Rhein-Neckar district).

Hospital Operators Warn of Losses in the Millions

According to the hospital operators, the planned legislative amendment would result in financial losses of more than 600 million euros per year for hospitals in Baden-Württemberg. Uwe Borchmann, Managing Director of the Hospital Association of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (KGMV), expects revenue shortfalls of around 3.5 million euros per year for a basic and standard care hospital with 200 beds. Borchmann looked ahead: "Wenn die privaten und freien Träger die Krankenhäuser nicht mehr betreiben können, müssen die Landkreise dem Träger einen Zuschuss geben oder die Krankenhäuser übernehmen und selbst führen." This would mean a considerable burden on the district budgets.

Thorsten Dossow, ver.di district manager for Mittelbaden-Nordschwarzwald, described the planned reforms and austerity measures of the federal government in an interview with SWR as a massive attack on the entire social system. He said: "Davon betroffen seien alle, vom ungeborenen Kind bis zu den Senioren." Dossow also explained that if wage and cost increases for staff were to be replaced in the future by fixed rates, as the federal government plans, the federal government would be intervening in collective bargaining autonomy. That, according to Dossow, is only the beginning. A pension reform has been announced for the summer, as well as a discussion about working life expectancy. According to ver.di, caring relatives would have to bear painful pension losses under the plans of the Merz government. According to Dossow's account, subsidies from the health insurance funds for dental prostheses are also at risk, as is the coverage of costs for cancer screening.

The Federal Government's Goal: Stable Health Insurance Contributions

The federal government is pursuing the goal of keeping contributions to the statutory health insurance funds stable with the austerity package. Next year alone, the statutory health insurance funds are to be relieved by more than 16 billion euros. Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) said in an interview with Bild am Sonntag: "Nur ein finanziell wirklich stabiles System kann auch garantieren, dass eine gute Versorgung auch weiterhin erhalten bleibt." Ver.di, on the other hand, is calling for the law to be stopped and otherwise expects a significant deterioration in care and job cuts in the healthcare sector. For patients, this would mean "sehr viel längere Wartezeiten, Aufnahmestopps und auch Praxisschließungen." From 2027, the warning goes, hospitals will have to significantly restrict their range of services due to the drastically reduced financial resources.

The background to the protests is a meeting of the state health ministers with Federal Health Minister Nina Warken on Wednesday in Hanover. They want to discuss the austerity plans. For Wednesday, the ver.di trade union, several hospital operators, and doctors' associations had called for protest actions. Hospitals from a total of ten cities are taking part in protest actions at hospitals; the state-wide actions are to continue until Friday. For Friday, the state hospital association BWKG has also called for a symbolic hospital closure. Pediatrician Michel in Greifswald also sees structural problems: "Ein Drittel der Haus- und Kinderärzte ist über 60." Many doctors will retire in a few years — the question is whether practices will have to close.

Patients with acute symptoms do not have to go without care during the actions. Doctors pointed out that emergency services would be maintained. Patients can find out who is taking over emergency services on the notice on the practice door. The initiators of the protests emphasized that they did not want to set a sign against patients with their actions, but rather draw attention to the consequences of the reform, as they see them. The organizers called for people to engage in conversation with the doctors on site. In Hamburg, the representative assembly of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians had already warned at the end of May about the "verheerenden Folgen" of the Berlin austerity plans. In some specialty groups, reimbursement losses of up to 30 percent were threatened, said the chairman Michael Reusch at the time.