"Austrian Health Minister proposes financing 500 new doctors with millionaire tax"

“It’s doable and affordable,” he said in an interview with the “Kleine Zeitung” (Saturday edition). The positions could be financed, for example, by a millionaire tax, which the coalition partner ÖVP has always rejected.

Rauch believes that 500 additional doctors in the private sector would relieve the hospitals. The health system is good, but “organized extremely complicated”. The basic problem is different financing pots. “I’m trying to improve that. It needs 500 additional panel doctors, it needs more primary care centers, it needs an offer where I know as a patient that I won’t be sent in circles.”

The minister sees two options here: “Federal reform, which I don’t see on the horizon in the next hundred years. Or fiscal equalization. It’s now being negotiated and I’m relatively confident that we’ll get something done.” When asked about the financing, Rauch replied: “What speaks against a millionaire tax if the wealth is unfairly distributed? But that’s a separate story.”