“They sit at the doctor and have their teeth remade” – CDU leader Merz caused outrage with this statement about migrants. Representatives of the SPD, the Greens and the Left accused him of populism. Merz, however, received support from the Union.
The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz called on the federal government to curb irregular migration in a talk format on the TV channel Welt – and caused strong criticism with his statements about rejected asylum seekers.
“They’ll go crazy, the people, when they see that 300,000 asylum seekers have been rejected, not leaving the country, getting full benefits, getting full medical care,” Merz claimed. “They sit at the doctor and have their teeth changed, and the German citizens next door don’t get any appointments.”
The Union faction also spread its boss’s statement on the X platform, formerly Twitter. “We have to talk about the pull factors that are at work here in Germany. We have massive factors that lead to over 30 percent of asylum seekers from all over Europe coming to Germany,” he said. He accused the coalition of not acting. “What you are doing here is a disaster for this country.”
“Merz spread misinformation”
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser contradicted Merz: “This is pathetic populism on the backs of the weakest. Anyone who speaks like that is playing people off against each other and only strengthening the AfD,” she wrote on if you are acutely ill or suffering from pain.”
The Green Party leader Ricarda Lang expressed herself similarly to Faeser. Merz “consciously plays groups off against each other, spreading false information. This doesn’t solve a single problem, but it fuels hatred,” she wrote on X. That was “unworthy of the chairman of a people’s party.”
The chairman of the left-wing faction, Dietmar Bartsch, also joined in the criticism. It is irresponsible to stir up fears “that should not be there in this form at all,” he said on Phoenix.
Support from the Union
Party friends defended the CDU leader. Merz addresses “what people are saying on the street,” said deputy CSU leader Manfred Weber on Deutschlandfunk. “When I’m campaigning in Bavaria, these are the issues that interest and move people.”
The health policy group spokesman Tino Sorge spoke in the “Rheinische Post” of “hypocritical indignation from the ranks of the traffic lights”. Hundreds of thousands of rejected asylum seekers have been forced to leave the country for years, some of them. Nevertheless, they could use the German healthcare system for free. “It is a reality that doctor’s appointments are becoming scarcer in many places due to the burden of migrants. Numerous municipalities have been confirming this for months. This also applies to daycare and school places,” said the CDU politician.
Clear legal situation regarding sickness benefits
Paragraph 4 of the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act states: “The treatment of acute illnesses and pain conditions includes the necessary medical and dental treatment, including the provision of medicines and bandages, as well as other services required for the recovery, improvement or alleviation of illnesses or the consequences of illness to grant.” The following is restricted: “Dentures will only be provided if this cannot be postponed for medical reasons in individual cases.”
However, things look different after the first 18 months of their stay: from then on, asylum seekers are looked after by statutory health insurance companies. You will receive an electronic health card and thus “almost the same benefits as those with statutory health insurance,” says the homepage of the umbrella association of statutory health insurance (GKV).
However, health insurance companies usually do not pay for bridges or crowns in full, but rather cover 60 percent of the costs for dentures. The rest must be paid additionally or is covered by additional private insurance.