Health care - Criticism of Lauterbach's "Healthy Heart Act"
The chairman of the Joint Committee of Doctors, Hospitals and Health Insurance Funds, Josef Hecken, criticizes the plans of Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) to combat Heart-Circulatory Diseases. "More medications and check-ups for children are activism, but not a strategy to get a handle on civilization diseases," Hecken told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).
Lauterbach's draft for a "Healthy Heart Law" proposes that children, adolescents, and adults undergo regular heart examinations in the future to detect and prevent metabolic disorders. Examinations in childhood and adolescence should provide early indications if hereditary causes for metabolic disorders exist. Medications for nicotine addiction cessation and lowering cholesterol levels should also be prescribed more frequently.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs "not candy from the supermarket"
In Hecken's view, the plans are misguided: "Instead of fighting for children to eat healthily and balanced and for educational campaigns for a healthy lifestyle, medications are to be prescribed," he lamented. The preferred medications for lowering cholesterol levels, according to Lauterbach, are not "candy from the supermarket," but medications with many side effects. They cause, for example, muscle pain, liver damage, or diabetes.
Hecken stated that such an approach would mean that long-term medication would begin in adolescence. "The approach of prescribing medications to children for a long time must remain the absolute exception if there are no medical reasons for anything else."
Funded by the health insurance funds according to the draft law, the services are the highest decision-making body for health insurance benefits in the healthcare sector.
Heart-Circulatory Diseases are the leading cause of death in Germany and, according to the Robert Koch Institute's data, account for approximately 40 percent of all deaths, around 350,000 per year. The Health Ministry justifies the need for the law in part due to the lower life expectancy compared to other western European countries and a deficit in prevention and early detection.
- Josef Hecken, critiquing Health Minister Karl Lauterbach's plans, argued that prescribing more medications and check-ups for children is not a viable strategy for combating civilization diseases in Germany.
- Lauterbach's proposed "Healthy Heart Law" aims to require regular heart examinations for children, adolescents, and adults to detect and prevent metabolic disorders, with early indications sought in childhood and adolescence.
- In opposition to Lauterbach's draft, Hecken expressed concern over promoting long-term medication for adolescents, claiming that such an approach should be an absolute exception unless medically necessary.
- The G-BA, as the highest decision-making body for health insurance benefits in the German healthcare sector, would fund the services outlined in Lauterbach's draft law.
- Heart-Circulatory Diseases are the leading cause of death in Germany, accounting for around 40% of all deaths annually and nearly 350,000 fatalities, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute.
- The Federal Government, justifying the need for the proposed legislation, cites lower life expectancy compared to other western European countries and a deficit in prevention and early detection as factors necessitating stronger measures to combat this deadly health issue.
