2024-08-31 18:25:10
Cabinet
What does the heart prevention initiative bring?
Updated on 28.08.2024Reading time: 3 min.
The name says it all: Healthy Heart Act. According to the federal government’s plans, several measures are intended to prevent the most common cause of death in Germany more often – but there is also criticism.
Greater preventive measures with regular check-ups are intended to prevent many deaths from cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes. The Federal Cabinet has launched legislative plans by Health Minister Karl Lauterbach that provide for additional early detection and preventive measures at the expense of health insurers – starting with children to find congenital disorders. The law will save “numerous lives,” said the SPD politician. The health insurers warned against endangering other preventive activities.
Lauterbach explained: “We need to protect the health of the heart better.” Germany has had a problem with too many deaths from heart disease for years. There are always action programs and calls for action. However, important risk factors are recognized and treated too late compared to other countries.
The draft therefore provides for several new measures. After much criticism of the first attempts to regulate directly by law, the Federal Joint Committee of doctors, health insurance companies and hospitals is now to be involved in the concrete implementation.
… the usual and widely used U9 examination at the age of around five should be expanded to include tests for lipid metabolism disorders with too much cholesterol in the blood. Between 5,000 and 10,000 children in a year group have such inherited disorders, which, if left untreated, often lead to a first heart attack at the age of 25 or 35, explained the minister. These children could then be prescribed blood lipid-lowering medication (statins). In addition, other relatives could be specifically examined for such congenital risk factors.
… health insurance companies should be obliged to invite children between the ages of 12 and 14 to the youth health examination (J1), which has so far often been forgotten. The focus should be on information on risky behavior such as smoking. It should also be possible to identify early signs of severe obesity, lack of exercise or poor posture, as Lauterbach made clear.
… the health examinations already offered are to be expanded to include check-ups for cardiovascular diseases, namely at the ages of 25, 40 and 50. Cholesterol is also to be analyzed and, if levels are elevated, treatment with statins is to be regulated at the expense of the health insurance company. The Federal Joint Committee is preparing a new guideline for this, said Lauterbach.
The right to medication that helps people quit smoking will no longer be limited to “severe” addictions and will be available more often than every three years. Vouchers for consultations and tests in pharmacies are also planned.
Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death in Germany. According to the Federal Statistical Office, 348,000 people died from them last year, which corresponds to a third of all deaths. And despite high health spending, life expectancy in Germany is 80.6 years in 2022, which is significantly lower than in other Western European countries, the ministry explained.
At the same time, billions of euros are being spent on treating cardiovascular cases. The law therefore also aims to reduce these costs. In the draft, the ministry estimates possible savings at several hundred million euros per year.
The health insurance companies were harshly critical. Doing more for prevention was the right thing to do, declared the Allgemeine Ortskrankenkassen (AOK). However, the traffic light coalition was “completely on the wrong track” with these measures, warned the head of the federal association, Carola Reimann. Instead of creating new examinations with questionable benefits and destroying valuable prevention offers, the law should be scrapped. A “small ray of hope” is that the Federal Joint Committee for Health Care is to be more closely involved.
Its chairman, Josef Hecken, said that there had never been any doubt about the goal of identifying and combating risk factors for cardiovascular disease as early as possible. Now the plans are on the right track again. “The danger that health care will move more towards state medicine has been significantly reduced by the new draft.”
Union politician Tino Sorge (CDU) demanded that it was time to start a “real campaign” for more sport and healthy eating and to expand established prevention structures.