Source: http://gesundheit-gefluechtete.info/en/entitlement-and-scope-of-provision/?amp;preview=true
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 17:46:01+00:00

Document:
Statutory healthcare is regulated for all groups of refugees in the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. However, the law does not define the specific benefits that need to be provided, which in practice has often led to ambiguity and incorrect interpretation. By now, there are clear indications and clarifications how to interpret the legal provisions. Based on the legal wording, these will be laid out in the following.
1. Who is eligible for healthcare?
The following statements regarding the scope of provision, therefore, only refer to refugees that have stayed in Germany for less than 15 months.
The scope of provision is set out in § 4 and § 6 of the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. In the case of illness (for acute illnesses and pain) medical and dental care needs to be provided, including the provision of medicines and bandages, and other benefits necessary for recovery, improvement or alleviation of diseases or sequalae. Additionally, officially recommended vaccinations and all services for pregnancy and childbirth (see § 4 AsylbLG) are included. Moreover, according to the flexibility clause § 6 AsylbLG “other benefits […] in particular […] if they are indispensable in individual cases for the safeguarding […] of a person’s health”, can be claimed.
The social welfare offices in charge are obliged to ensure the benefits (so called “securing task”) (results from § 4 para. 3 sentence 1 AsylbLG).
The vague definition of the legal terms “acute illnesses” and “pain”, as § 4 AsylbLG words it, leads in practice regularly to uncertainty. Therefore, in the following, after a general overview for the specific medical treatment, a detailed compilation on how to interpret the legal provision has been laid out.
→ Put succinctly, this corresponds largely with the scope of provision of the SGB V, the statutory health insurance and has successfully been implemented in the so-called Bremen Model for many years.
Generally, the scope of provision has to be in accordance with the general rules of the statutory health insurance law, which stipulates that the treatment has to follow the rules of medical standards and needs to be sufficient and appropriate (see § 28 para. 1 sentence 1 SGB V), be economically feasible and not exceed the necessary means (§ 12 para. 1 SGB V).
Especially in the context of the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht – BVerfG ) 24 that a decent minimum standard of living needs to be guaranteed – which also includes health benefits– the flexibility cause of § 6 AsylbLG is of paramount importance. 25 If medical care according to § 4 AsylbLG proves insufficient and a fundamental right might be infringed (physical integrity), the entitlement to “other benefits” is mandatory in order to safeguard the health of the person concerned.
Birk (2008): § 4 AsylbLG Leistungen bei Krankheit, Schwangerschaft und Geburt. In Münder. SGB XII, 8 Aufl.
Birk (2015): Das neue Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz, info also 2015, 51-53; Kaltenborn, Die Neufassung des Asylbewerberleistungsgesetzes und das Recht auf Gesundheit, NZS 2015, S. 161-165.
Frerichs (2014): § 4 AsylbLG Leistungen bei Krankheit, Schwangerschaft und Geburt. In juris Praxiskommentar SGB XII 2. Aufl.
Frerichs (2015): § 6 AsylbLG Sonstige Leistungen. In juris Praxiskommentar SGB XII 2. Aufl.

References: § 4
 § 6
 § 4
 § 6
 § 4
 § 4
 § 28
 § 6
 § 4
 § 4
 § 4
 § 6