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COVID-19 TESTS

Will Germany keep free Covid tests after June?

Free Covid rapid tests are set to end in July, but with infections on the up, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has hinted that a rethink is on the cards. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 20 June 2022 17:42 CEST
A sign to a Covid test centre in Dresden.
A sign to a Covid test centre in Dresden. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Robert Michael

What’s going on?

The German federal government has been funding free-of-charge Bürgertests pretty much uninterruptedly since the Covid pandemic began, and with life resuming to normal this summer, there are plans to end the scheme at the end of June.

The Health Ministry has called on test centres not to close their doors if funding is scrapped, but in reality many likely would and people would have to pay a small charge to get tested for Covid-19.

However, amid concerns that Germany is experiencing the beginning of a new wave of infections, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) seems to be rethinking the plans to remove funding for the tests entirely.

At a press conference on Friday, he said that the government was currently working on a “new testing concept” for summer, adding that negotiations for further funding for the tests were underway.

According to Lauterbach, the ministry needs to thrash out a number of questions, including who would be eligible to get the free tests, how they’ll be financed and how abuse of the system can be prevented.

However, he said, “I assume that we can continue to use the Bürgertests in the summer.”

READ ALSO: German doctors call for ’empty’ Covid vaccine centres to close

Will this mean tests remain free?

This is unclear so far, but one possibility is that the tests would remain free for certain risk groups like the elderly or those with vulnerable immune systems. This was a similar system to the one that was briefly introduced for PCR tests early this year and would presumably involve having to bring medical proof and/or ID to the testing centre. 

Another option is for the states to step in and fund part of the scheme themselves. According to reports in Tagesschau, the federal government has spent more than €10 billion on free Bürgertests so far in the pandemic and is calling on regional governments to cough up at least half of the money for future tests. In particular, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is keen to slash funding for the scheme over concerns that the country is wracking up too much debt. 

READ ALSO: How long will Germany offer free rapid Covid-19 tests?

For their part, many of the state leaders don’t seem to be all that reluctant to see the pop-up testing centres disappear. In the view of Baden-Württemberg, for example, rapid tests should transition from the high street to the doctor’s surgery to prevent misuse of the system and save money. 

What are people saying? 

Local governments have so far spoken out fiercely in opposition to the plans to scrap the testing system.

“The free Bürgertests are an initial early warning system, so funding beyond June 30th should urgently continue to be secured by the federal government,” Reinhard Sager, president of the German Association of Counties, told RND on Sunday. 

Gerd Landsberg, the chief executive of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, told RND that free testing would give municipalities “a chance to prevent the pandemic from spreading unchecked”.

Test centre worker in Lower Saxony

An employee at a test centre in Lower Saxony prepares a swab for a rapid test. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Hauke-Christian Dittrich

States such as Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, meanwhile, have been calling for clarity on the situation after June.

“It is high time that the federal government gives us states planning security,” Bavaria’s Minister of Health Klaus Holetschek (CSU) said. “June 30th is just around the corner and we still don’t know any details about the federal government’s plans. That is completely incomprehensible.”

READ ALSO: German cities call for ‘quick decisions’ on Covid measures for summer

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COVID-19 TESTS

German doctors say Covid testing is too ‘expensive and bureaucratic’

Doctors in Germany have slammed the new Covid testing regime, which involves partly charging for rapid tests.

Published: 1 July 2022 10:23 CEST
German doctors say Covid testing is too 'expensive and bureaucratic'

The German Health Ministry announced on Thursday that most people would have to pay a contribution rate of €3 to get a Covid rapid test, while they would remain free of charge for certain vulnerable groups.

But chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, called for an end to so-called Covid Bürgertests. 

“These nonsensical tests must be abolished,” Gassen told Bild newspaper. “They are far too expensive, the bureaucratic effort is huge and the epidemiological significance is zero.”

It is a “completely pointless exercise to test healthy people with (tests of) questionable quality for no reason,” Gassen said.

Gassen said, however, that PCR tests carried out on patients with symptoms are important to detect Covid infections.

If people in Germany have Covid symptoms, they can contact their GP who can arrange for a PCR test that is covered by health insurance. 

According to the new test regulation, which came into force on Thursday, the Bürgertests, which were previously free of charge for everyone, will now only be available for free to a limited extent.

READ ALSO: The new rules on getting a Covid test in Germany 

For instance, people who can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons can still get a free rapid test, as well as children up to five-years-old and some at-risk groups. 

Other people will be charged €3 per test, and under the new rules people have to state why they are getting the test.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said he hoped this would help combat fraud as well as cut down on the cost to the taxpayer. 

However, in a letter to Lauterbach, the heads of the 17 associations of statutory health insurance doctors said they “do not want to be responsible for making payments on invoices whose accuracy they cannot even begin to check”.

They said they “will no longer be able to bill and pay for the Bürgertests in the future”.

According to research by Spiegel, more than €1 billion was taken by fraudsters for Covid tests that never took place – or test centres that did not even exist.

READ ALSO: Germany starts charging for Covid tests 

On Thursday, Health Minister Lauterbach defended the new test regulation. He told broadcaster ZDF that he would have liked to keep the tests completely free of charge, “but we could no longer afford that”.

He said the additional bureaucratic effort for the tests is “manageable”.

Lauterbach also told RTL Direkt that the tests would now be more meaningful. “If everyone can just get tested as often as they want, without there being a reason for it, then too many tests will also be negative, or if they are positive, then often false positives.

“We have limited that so that the tests are more meaningful.”

In a tweet on Friday morning, Lauterbach said the Health Ministry was “already in constructive talks” with the the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physician on the billing of tests. 

“The tests will remain, and will be invoiced correctly as of today,” he said, adding that they were “not pointless but help to prevent infected people from infecting others”.

A spokesperson for the Health Ministry told Bild: “The tests are not nonsensical, but save lives by breaking chains of infection. We assume that the KVs (associations) as corporations under public law, will continue to fulfil their mandate to bill and spot-check the test centres.”

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