More Doctors Strikes

Governmental back-slapping over the recent approval of controversial health reforms will be tempered after German doctor's and health federations announced that they will increase their protests against the reforms by staging more strikes and closures.

In an interview published Monday, a national day of action by doctors, pharmacists, hospital federations and other health organizations, German Doctor's Federation chairperson Kuno Winn told the Frankfurter Rundschau that more demonstrations would begin and more practices would close on April 1 if the reforms were passed as law on that day.

Winn warned that April 1 would be the start of several days of disruption in response to the expected ratification of the health reforms by the German upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat.

Prominent names join list of protesters

Jörg-Dietrich Hoppe, the president of the Federal Medical Association, also leant his voice to the protestors in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF.

"This law cannot stand," he said in reference to the reforms. "When more than 40 organizations from the health occupations form an alliance to protest this, then something must not be right.

"The reform does not provide a sustainable funding base for the health system," Hoppe said, adding that the reform would lead to a deterioration in care and fewer hospitals. He urged the government to rethink the reforms before it was too late.

Klaus Vater, the spokesperson for the federal health ministry, in turn warned doctors not to take any further action and that no amount of protest would reverse the decision over the health reforms.

Germany's health costs are the world's third highest behind the United States and Switzerland, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and costs have increased by more than 50 percent over the past decade to about 25 billion euros ($31.5 billion).

The nation's public health system, which consists of more than 250 medical funds and serves about 70 million Germans, is frequently deep in red ink. More than 8 million people are covered by a parallel private healthcare system.

Day of action against weak reforms

The centerpiece of the reform package is the introduction of a new overall health fund to collect and redistribute legally mandated health care contributions in a simpler and more transparent way. However, numerous critics have hit out against the reform, saying it does not make enough changes to a system in need of complete overhaul.

Protestors took to the streets on Monday in several states and surgeries and pharmacists were closed as the "Patients in Need" day of industrial action took hold. Numerous medical practices and drugstores remained closed in North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg. Marches and podium discussions were also planned for later in the day in other states.