If you are a patient hoping for a therapy place, you have to wait a long time. Are the “powerful” health insurance companies to blame? For Jan Böhmermann, the matter is clear.
Go for a walk. Just think positive – or have a beer. Dealing with depression is difficult enough. Listening to silly advice on how to overcome the disease hurts you even more. It is now gratifying that a prominent program on ZDF is taking on the subject. Less gratifying when this confused to dangerous advice comes from one of the most important men in the German health care system.
The ZDF Magazin Royale thinks it knows why you have to wait so long for a therapy place as a public health insurance patient. Moderator Jan Böhmermann drinks one bottle of beer after the other – as a form of therapy, of course.
ZDF Magazin Royale with Jan Böhmermann: Flat gags to get you started
Before we get down to business, Jan Böhmermann quickly deals with the excitement of the week. Topics such as the jungle camp, Boris Palmer, who no longer wants to compete for the Greens in Tübingen, Jörg Meuthen’s AfD exit or Erika Steinbach’s AfD entry – a real personnel carousel, just like in football, is the joke.
This is followed by a dig at the absconded Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose power is already shaking after just two months in office. Böhmermann also has no choice but to address the shitstorm he unleashed last week, although it must be mentioned that his comparison between children and rats as carriers of pathogens was deliberately misunderstood by his critics. According to Böhmermann, this program was also produced on Friday evening (February 4, 2022) with “sustainable nuclear power and natural Russian natural gas”. Somehow this message had to be mentioned.
Böhmermann also talks about the Catholic Church in his ZDF program. You can’t really imagine a better subject for a satirical show than the scandal-plagued institution. However, the editors seem to think that the topic would be too simple. Therefore, after the short but crazy segment in the style of “Bild-TV”, Böhmermann goes on to the actual main part – and thus to a “huge taboo topic”.
ZDF Magazin Royale: Jan Böhmermann points to serious abuses
On average, those in need have to wait six months for a place in therapy. A blatant grievance that has taken on even more dangerous features due to the corona pandemic, explains Böhmermann. But what can this be attributed to? according to dr Dietrich Munz, President of the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists, says there are “too few colleagues who are admitted to the statutory health insurance system,” says the recorded interview snippet. Böhmermann adds: cash register seats would be resold for “hundreds of thousands of euros” if one became free.
Of course, the problem of the long waiting time can be solved very easily: with a lot of money. Self-payers would often shell out 100 euros or more for an hour of therapy. “That can quickly cost several thousand euros.” What if you are dependent on statutory health insurance? Then you have to be prepared for threats – which then have to be dealt with in therapy. Clerks are said to have urged patients to prefer to “work”.
ZDF Magazin Royale: Jan Böhmermann identifies culprits for long waiting times for therapy
Jan Böhmermann blames a certain Josef Hecken for the precarious situation. The Saarland CDU politician is the chairman of the “Federal Joint Committee”: a committee that decides which services are covered by the statutory health insurance companies and to what extent. Incidentally, the logo of the GBA reminds Böhmermann of 24 croquettes, as he notes at one point in time. Patients and therapists are also part of the GBA, but the health insurance companies are by far the most powerful. “They can more or less decide for themselves what they want to pay for and what not,” says Böhmermann, who considers the whole thing “undemocratic”. Even the Federal Constitutional Court had doubts in 2015 “whether that was legitimate”.
Hecken is quoted with a sentence from a Spiegel report from 2013. Accordingly, he is said to have said that not everyone needs a therapist, sometimes a bottle of beer does it too. It is said that he did not deny this statement, but described it as “unfortunate because it was misleading”.
This also explains why the moderator of the ZDF Magazin Royale is constantly drinking. Jan Böhmermann is probably one of the lucky ones who doesn’t urgently need psychotherapy. A strong sip will do the job instead of a therapist with several years of qualification. A stroke of luck for Germany that alcohol itself cannot cause health problems.
ZDF Magazin Royale: Böhmermann mocks Jens Spahn
Many people will now ask why politicians don’t intervene and do something about the long waiting times for therapy places. Although the traffic light coalition has announced that it will do something, the federal government itself can only create “framework conditions”. And what was it like in the years before the traffic light? Jens Spahn (CDU) was Federal Minister of Health from 2018 to the end of 2021. He had suggested that doctors should also be allowed to prescribe apps for patients with mental health problems. And of course Jens Spahn knows that this has an effect. Excitedly grinning, Jan Böhmermann pulls out a book: “App from the doctor: Better health through digital medicine”. The co-author of the work is of course Jens Spahn.
It should be noted that Böhmermann can hardly believe his luck in coming across this book. He quotes mockingly: “Thanks to the sophisticated technology from the video game world, everything appears as if the patient were consulting a human psychotherapist via video conference. An elegant method that will make up for the lack of psychotherapists.” Jens Spahn should actually know that apps, of which many already exist, cannot simply get rid of such a devastating problem in our healthcare system.
ZDF Magazin Royale: The problem with the psychotherapy places
Friday, February 4th, 11:15 p.m. on ZDF, link to media library
Compared to conventional psychotherapy, access to such an app is extremely cheap from the point of view of health insurance companies. The right therapies would also have great economic benefits, as a report by the German Psychotherapists’ Association from May 2021 shows (page 60). In addition, the former minister revealed his ignorance. Because there is no shortage of psychotherapists, but rather a lack of cash register seats. Or that’s exactly why Jens Spahn came to the post of Minister of Health, Böhmermann suspects.
ZDF Magazin Royale: Important topic – unnecessary jokes
A conclusion at the end of the show: More emotion would have done her good. It’s a shame, because the topic of the show is well chosen, as is so often the case with ZDF Magazin Royale, hits a nerve and would have deserved more airtime. Instead of some jungle camp and croquette gags, Jan Böhmermann could have described the situation of those affected by the crisis. Because based on the often meaningless advice that mentally ill people have to endure in real life, it can be seen that many people do not know enough about the diseases.
Mental illnesses are invisible and can be ignored accordingly “easier”. With the comparison that you don’t have to wait months for treatment for a broken bone, but you do for a mental illness, Böhmermann hits the mark. Because depression is at least as devastating to health – and can be fatal. In any case, the show shows us that people’s health should always be a priority. (Luke Rogalla)
