Lauterbach on Long Covid: "Unfortunately true" - Hartz-4 not an option for patients
Created: 06/16/2022, 05:01
By: Anna Lorenz
Anyone who suffers from Long Covid after a corona infection is often unable to work.
According to Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach, the path to Hartz 4 is not a viable option in the long term.
Berlin – Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) regularly shares his views on the topic of Corona via the social media portal Twitter.
His last tweet from June 11, 2022 dealt with Long Covid, the long-term illness that can follow a corona infection and, according to the
RKI
, sometimes leads to the inability to work of those affected.
Here Lauterbach left the medical terrain insofar as he devoted himself to the problem of the extent to which patients had to be supported by the welfare state.
After Corona Long Covid: Sick people are threatened with a “financial crash” – Lauterbach sees a need for action
Anyone suffering from corona regularly has the prospect of a mild course with regard to the currently dominant variant.
But once the infection is over, some of those affected suffer from persistent symptoms, sometimes for weeks and months.
While physicians differentiate between long covid and post covid depending on the duration of the illness, the former term has become popular when patients complain of fatigue, shortness of breath or cognitive dysfunction.
Much is not yet known about the ongoing phase of the disease, but as the
WHO
rightly notes, “in general [the symptoms] affect the functioning of everyday life”.
Some of those affected are unable to concentrate and perform well, so that an inability to work often has to be diagnosed.
Following the principle of the welfare state, those affected receive financial support through sick pay, unemployment benefit I and, ultimately, Hartz-4.
The injury benefit from the professional associations is also an option, but here those affected are regularly “controlled” after 78 weeks of payment, as it is called
in specialist jargon according to
Spiegel .
The associated deprivation, in particular the required consumption of private resources, often causes the sick to get into financial bottlenecks through no fault of their own.
"We have to stop the victims' financial collapse," Lauterbach demands in his tweet.
The number of those affected is actually not small: while the federal government is reluctant to provide precise information, according to current studies by the
Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care
, it can be assumed that around ten percent of those infected with corona will develop Long Covid;
quite a few of those affected have to struggle with the symptoms for a long time.
Corona: Long-term consequences often not recognized - assessment made massively more difficult by previous knowledge of Long Covid
It is also particularly serious that entry into the social safety net in the event of long-term corona effects is not automatic.
“So far, long Covid has often not been recognized as an occupational disease,” the minister points out.
However, a classification as such is absolutely necessary in order to assert the claims of the employers' liability insurance association.
The hitherto limited knowledge of Long Covid also causes problems in the state social system when the disease has to be diagnosed.
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Expert opinions for Long Covid have so far been difficult to obtain.
According to
Der Spiegel
, it is not only the difficult to prove causal link between the disease and the long-lasting, non-specific symptoms that is a problem;
Doctors and authorities are also skeptical about their own ability to diagnose Long Covid.
Added to this is the bureaucracy, which makes it difficult for those affected to apply for help.
"Unfortunately true," summarizes Lauterbach, who seems determined to make the situation more effective.
It remains to be seen to what extent his tweet should be understood as an appeal to politicians or as his own project.
(askl)