– Rapid tests for the corona virus should bring security to everyday life and detect infections as early as possible. But that’s not cheap. The federal government spends billions on the free citizen tests.
Since spring 2020, the federal government has spent around 7.6 billion euros on corona tests, the material and the infrastructure behind them. This is explained by the responsible Federal Office for Social Security (BAS) when asked by our editors. That is about as much as the annual budget of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
According to the BAS, around 1.13 billion euros flowed back to Bavaria – only the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia spends more. In addition to the rapid tests, PCR swabs are also recorded in the statistics.
The system works like this: Swab providers continuously report their costs to the Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVB). Currently, eight euros can be billed per quick test, plus up to 4.50 euros for the material. Once a month, the KVB passes on the test costs to the Federal Social Security Office, which it reimburses on behalf of the federal government. In the end, the money is distributed to the test providers.
Neither KVB nor the responsible federal office know how many cuts were made for the 7.6 billion euros. It remains unclear how many quick tests were carried out as part of the free citizen test.
At the request of our editors, the Federal Ministry of Health is trying to differentiate: According to a spokeswoman, around 1.5 billion have been paid for laboratory diagnostics – this mostly involves the evaluation of PCR smears. 2.1 billion were refinanced for the material of the rapid tests. Around 3.7 billion were spent on “further services”, i.e. “in particular swabs,” said the spokeswoman. “Whereas a differentiation according to smear tests for PCR and PoC antigen rapid tests is not possible with the available data.
Test center operator: “It’s lucrative, that’s no secret”
According to the Ministry of Health, there are currently 109 local test centers and around 2,400 private providers in Bavaria. There are also 1,200 pharmacies, 1,000 medical practices and 300 aid and rescue organizations that theoretically offer cutbacks. The state government speaks of a “diverse and nationwide offer” that ensures the supply.
In the past few months, hundreds of private test centers have sprung up in Germany, gold rush sentiment broke out, and many resourceful entrepreneurs are eyeing the quick euro. But: In the meantime, they have to meet high requirements. They need a hygiene concept, for example in Nuremberg they have to be barrier-free, and the employees are trained accordingly. “The health department checks, among other things, compliance with the requirements of infection protection law, medical product law and occupational safety law and the required reliability of the operator,” the ministry said.
But who is actually testing us? And who earns from the swabs? “It’s lucrative, that’s no secret,” says Yusuf Aslan, who runs 15 test centers in Nuremberg. You can find out how the system works and how many fraud procedures there are in our detailed Paid version of the article:
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