The proposal polarized, even within the Union: the CDU’s Economic Council suggested last weekend To no longer have dental treatment paid for by statutory health insurance. Opposition came not only from the opposition, but also from the party leadership, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Health Minister Nina Warken.
Peter Urbanowicz knows firsthand what it means when your dental health is not insured: The 77-year-old dentist works on a voluntary basis two days a week in a Malteser practice in Cologne. This is aimed specifically at people without health insurance and offers them free treatments.
taz: Mr. Urbanowicz, who are the people who come to your Malteser practice?
Peter Urbanowicz: There are many Eastern Europeans who are allowed to stay in Germany for three months without a residence permit and then have to return. They prefer to be treated by the Maltese people rather than in their home country because it obviously costs money there and the quality of the treatment is not as high as here. Since Corona, significantly more German citizens have been coming. As a rule, these are self-employed people who were once privately insured and at some point were no longer able to pay their fees. In such cases you are quickly thrown out of insurance and the way back is complicated – so people come to us.
Im Interview: Peter Urbanowicz
77, is a dentist. He sold his practice in Wesseling at the end of 2010. Since then, he has been working on a voluntary basis for “Maltese Medicine for People without Health Insurance”, a medical facility in Cologne.
taz: When you look into your patients’ mouths: What problems do you see there most often?
Urbanowicz: The problems are tooth decay and often completely destroyed teeth. For patients from abroad, this is often due to poor oral hygiene. Many are heavy smokers and lose their teeth due to smoking periodontitis, so the only option they can actually take is surgical intervention. The German clientele who cannot pay for health insurance does take care of their teeth. But of course they don’t come for a check-up twice a year like patients who are billed through their health insurance company. They only come when it’s too late and they have a problem. Usually some kind of pain or a broken tooth.
taz: Once the patients are there, can you help them in the same way as the insured?
Urbanowicz: No, I can’t close gaps in my teeth. The practice survives on donations and there are not enough funds for dentures. Unless the patient says he has money. Then I can consult with the laboratory and that will do something. This happens every now and then.
taz: Statutory health insurance companies do not pay for all dental services today; insured people often also have to pay additional costs. Social differences So you would also have to recognize this in your work in regular practice?
Urbanowicz: Not so much. A lot depends on the patient himself. If someone is not doing particularly well financially, but attaches great importance to oral hygiene and comes for regular check-ups, we can do a lot. Of course, there are also heavy smokers among the insured. There is a lack of blood supply to the oral cavity, which makes you very susceptible to tooth decay, bone loss and so on. The tooth loss is self-inflicted, if you will.
taz: The reason for our conversation is the demand to exclude dental treatment from statutory health insurance. What did you think when you heard about this proposal?
Urbanowicz: Crazy idea. I don’t know who thought it up, but there couldn’t have been a doctor there. There are a whole range of diseases that only start with the teeth and can manifest themselves in completely different organs, up to joint problems or even a heart attack. This means: You always have to see the person as a whole and cannot exclude the oral cavity separately. You could perhaps limit it to pain management and tooth preservation and take on less responsibility for dentures. But eliminating dental treatment altogether is absolute nonsense.