Healthcare in Austria

[3] Enrollment in the public health care system is generally automatic and is linked to employment,[4] however insurance is also guaranteed to co-insured persons (i.e. spouses and dependents[5] ), pensioners, students, the disabled, and those receiving unemployment benefits.

[4] The cost of public insurance is based on income and is not related to individual medical history or risk factors.

[4] By 2008 the economic crisis caused a deep recession, and out-of-pocket payments for healthcare increased to become 28% of health expenditures.

[12] The city of Vienna has been listed as 1st in quality of living (which includes a variety of social services) by the Mercer Consultants.

In a survey in Lower Austria, 8% of respondents said that they were offered shorter waiting times for additional private payments.

[15] According to Statistics Austria, 2007, in Thomson & Mossialos, 2009, as cited in Health Systems in Transition (HiT) profile of Austria, 2013, social health insurance patients waited twice as long for cardiac catheterization, and 3-4 times as long for cataract and knee surgery.

[17] Austria's health care began primarily in 1956 with the "Allgemeines Sozialversicherungsgesetz" better referred to as the General Social Insurance Law or ASVG, which mandated that healthcare is a right.

The level of coverage rapidly grew since 1955-1956 ratification of the General Social Insurance Law, and by 1980, it included unrestricted hospital care, and preventive check-ups.

[11] In 2010 under the chancellorship of Werner Faymann, the Social Democratic Health Minister Alois Stöger began the process of reform as a response to rising healthcare costs and difficulties with capacity.

The system is financed in part with public debt, which had become a significant challenge in the aftermath of the recession that hit Austria in 2009.

Reforms in 2013 aimed to increase capacity, improve the quality of care and address fiscal concerns in concert with the Finance Ministry.

[21] These provisions are the legal foundation for a national EHR system based upon a substantial public interest according to Art 8(4) of the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC.

[22] The Austrian EHR-Act pursues an opt-out approach in order to harmonize the interests of public health and privacy in the best possible manner.