12.12.2002 - 32/02

Berlin. Dr. Klaus Theo Schröder (Social Democrats), Undersecretary at the Federal Ministry for Health and Social Security, expects better chances of a consensus with the Christian Democrats regarding the contribution rate stability law (Beitragssicherungsgesetz) after the German regional elections in Hesse and Lower Saxony on 2 February 2003. Dr. Schröder spoke at the MedInform conference“Health Policy after the General Election” in Berlin. MedInform is the information and seminar service of BVMed, the German Medical Technology Association.

Dr. Schröder said that the government and opposition will have much in common when the matter is debated in the forthcoming arbitration committee sessions beginning in 2003, e. g. regarding the imposed limits on administrative expenditure of the sickness funds and the extension of the application period of hospitals  for the optional DRG year in 2003.

The key points of the health reform should be in place by the end of January 2003. The expert draft should be submitted by Easter, so that the law can come into force at the start of 2004, Dr. Schröder said. The central themes of the reform will be to raise efficiency reserves and improve the quality of the health system. Only then will discussions concerning the income aspect of the service begin.

Prof. Jürgen Wasem, health economy expert from the University of Greifswald and a major government consultant, called on politicians to be braver. This also applied to Health Minister Ulla Schmidt, who was first “pointed in the reform direction” by the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation paper, initiated in part by Prof. Wasem and Prof. Karl Lauterbach. Wasem called for a “solidarity-based competition regulation”, requiring more competition in order to promote more quality and economy within the health service, as well as to remove sectoral divisions.

In his opening speech, BVMed Director General Joachim M. Schmitt demanded a greater role for the medical device industry in the decision-making process, especially the procedures of the federal committees. Undersecretary Dr. Schröder shared the criticism of the intransparency of these procedures. He said that the federal committees had made tactical errors in the past. Mr Schröder added that the “performance” of the co-ordination committee could be considerably better. He announced an extremely transparent working practice for the new “German Centre for Quality in Medicine”. All those concerned would be included in the procedures, interim reports would be published and the final meeting would be open to the public.

Digitale pictures from the conference are available at www.bvmed.de (Bilder - Veranstaltungen).

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