As of: March 2, 2024, 5:06 a.m
By: Sebastian Horsch
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Open your mouth once, please: visits to the dentist are not subject to entertainment tax.
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Politicians are tinkering with the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act.
It's about access to health insurance benefits.
Munich
– The sentence had it all: “They sit at the doctor and have their teeth changed, and the German citizens next door don’t get any appointments,” Friedrich Merz said in September 2023 about rejected asylum seekers in Germany.
What followed was an excited debate that ranged somewhere between “It doesn’t work at all” and “There’s something to it at its core.”
Merz statement about asylum seekers: New regulations on health insurance
At least in this general sense, the CDU leader's statement was not tenable.
Even if it would actually seem worthwhile for individual dentists to specialize in services for asylum seekers, legal restrictions apply.
In their first 18 months in the country, asylum seekers and tolerated people in need of help received only limited medical care.
And yet the federal and state governments seem to have seen a need for adjustments at this point.
At their migration summit on November 6th, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the Prime Minister decided on a far-reaching change to the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act, which came into force this week.
So-called analogue benefits – i.e. benefits that correspond in type and amount to social assistance – are now only available to asylum seekers and tolerated persons after 36 months instead of the previous 18 months.
They will then also receive an electronic health card and access to statutory health insurance benefits.
Asylum seekers in Germany: Only limited health services in the first three years
Conversely, this means that since Tuesday they have only had limited health services available to them for three years.
“These include the medical and dental treatment required to treat acute illnesses and pain conditions as well as certain preventive services, vaccinations and health services in connection with pregnancy and birth,” the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs said in response to a query from our newspaper: “Dental prostheses are only provided if this is permitted Individual cases cannot be postponed for medical reasons.” During this time, anything that goes beyond the basic services is only available in individual cases, “if the services are essential to ensure health.”
When it comes to dental treatment, there has been a so-called positive list in Bavaria since 2015 with treatments that should be granted from the start - and now for 36 months.
Above all, it includes what is necessary to achieve “freedom from pain,” explains the Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Dentists.
“This includes root canals, fillings and tooth extractions.”
Video: More than 1.1 million asylum applications in Europe in 2023
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Asylum Seekers Act adapted: Exception for refugees from Ukraine in need of help
Special case: For those who have been in Germany for 18 months but not yet 36 months, grandfathering applies.
“The people affected do not fall back on basic benefits, so that if they need help they continue to receive health services in the appropriate scope of services provided by the statutory health insurance,” explains the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The situation is fundamentally different for refugees from Ukraine in need of help.
You will have access to the full catalog of statutory health insurance benefits right from the start.
(Sebastian Horsch)