German lower house approves long-debated hospital reform

Germany's lower house of parliament has passed a controversial government plan to reform the country's hospital system.

The plan was approved by the Bundestag on Thursday after two years of preparation and debate.

The aim of the legislation is to relieve the financial pressure on hospitals and to encourage them to offer more specialized treatment.

The opposition rejected the plan, which could still be held up in the upper house, the Bundesrat.

The idea is to change the current flat-rate reimbursement for the treatment of cases in hospitals. In the future, they are to receive 60% of the reimbursement for providing certain services, reducing the pressure to treat as many cases as possible.

Before the vote, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said the hospital sector in the country is in crisis, and care is too expensive. "We have a coexistence of overuse, underuse and misuse," he said, and cited the frequent fitting of knee prostheses because this is lucrative for clinics.

He insisted that the reform would improve the quality of treatment in German hospitals and maintain a viable network of good clinics across the country. He said the reform would be implemented step by step over several years, so it will not be immediately noticeable for patients.

The reform has been criticized by some health ministers from Germany's federal states, with minister Kerstin von der Decken from the state of Schleswig-Holstein warning that the plan poses an acute threat to the security of basic and emergency care, especially in rural areas. Individual states are partly responsible for healthcare policy in federal Germany.

Germany has the highest density of hospitals in Europe, with around 1,700 in total. However, many beds are not occupied, and many clinics run at a loss.