The end of the cure 25 years ago also meant a deep turning point for Bad Tölz.
Now the wheel of history seems to be turning back - at least a little bit.
Bad Tölz
- nobody expected that anymore.
Almost exactly 25 years after the then CSU Minister Horst Seehofer implemented the health reform (January 1, 1997) and thus sentenced the classic spa treatment and many health resorts to death, it is reintroduced and the wheel of history is turned back.
The Bundestag has decided that the outpatient pension benefits will be paid for by the health insurance companies again.
Examples are baths prescribed by a doctor, massages, back training, nutritional advice and relaxation cures.
Subsidies can also be made for accommodation and meals.
Head of Touris-Info Bad Tölz welcomes the Bundestag decision on the cure
A few figures make it clear what this means for the health resorts.
In the mid-1990s, 900,000 German citizens benefited from the spa treatment every year.
In 2020 there were only 11,500 left - also due to corona, of course - half of them in Bavaria.
The spa and tourism bosses in the Free State are delighted with the surprising decision of the Bundestag, as can be seen in the specialist articles on the Internet.
There is now pressure to implement the resolutions quickly.
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In demand, healthy and contemporary again: Kneipp therapy in the new pools at the Tölzer Kurpark.
© Tourist-Info Bad Tölz
Brita Hohenreiter, the head of tourist information from Tölz, also welcomes the reform of the reform and expressly thanks the Bavarian Minister of Health Klaus Holetschek for his long struggle over the topic of health prevention.
Holetschek was chairman of the Bavarian Spa Association from 2006 to 2020.
At Brita Hohenreiter, however, cautious restraint is mixed in with the joy.
The idea of a spa “fell asleep” in 24 years.
The insight that preventive cures could make longer and longer working hours possible in the first place has unfortunately been lost.
Even if politicians have now corrected a “gross mistake”: the extent of the spa treatment “will never be more”.
Transferring the outdated term cure to the modern age
The term cure is also a bit outdated. Nevertheless, one cannot do without it, since the term “outpatient spa treatment” is being searched for on the Internet. For Hohenreiter, it is important to make the product fit for the future and to "bring it into the modern age". The tourist information office has already tried this on its website using imagery. Photos of the rather passive spa guests of yore in Tölz are juxtaposed with current images of young, sporty and health-conscious clients. They should make you want to recharge your batteries for everyday work in Tölz. If the outpatient preventive care cure “grows slowly but healthily”, Hohenreiter said it could again become a business model for private operators in Tölz.
Speaking of private individuals: Andreas Munkert, head of the Tölz Rehabilitation Clinic Frisia with 126 beds, thinks the Bundestag decision is good, even if it “comes too late”.
Many smaller houses that would have offered the spa treatment no longer exist.
Not much will change in the Frisia's business model.
The inpatient cure has always been used.
From the point of view of the spa clinic operator from Bad Tölz, reform comes far too late
Nevertheless, Munkert is curious to see whether the demand will change.
Outpatient health care is offered to companies like Osram as part of the BKK company weeks.
Maybe this is a door opener for other companies.
Because, says Munkert, “we always do the math now for companies: if they approve a three-week cure, then it is already a positive investment for them.” Accordingly, employees would then be on their wages and salaries for longer.
By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our new, regular Bad Tölz newsletter.
From Christoph Schnitzer