Die Gesundheitsreform der Großen Koalition: Kleinster gemeinsamer Nenner oder offenes Hintertürchen?

Beyond Christian Democracy? Welfare State Politics and Policy in a Changing CDU

“…A federally run pool gave the state 'new terrain in health care', a 'notable break' with corporatism that undercut the autonomy of insurers to set rates. 84 Experts noted that, despite talk of more competition, vital adjustments would not be left to markets, funds or firms: instead, this plan's 'centralisation of funding' and growing tax subsidies 'considerably raised the influence of the federal government'. 85 Debate on long-term care insurance also tested CDU commitment to a narrower solidarity.…”

Voluntary Regulation by the Pharmaceutical Industry—Which Role for the Shadow of Hierarchy and Social Pressure?

“…Critics said that some of these medicines were pseudo-innovations for which high prices were not justified (e.g., FAZ February 2, 2004), whereas pharmaceutical industry insisted that innovations are real and that high prices are necessary to refund enormous costs for research and development. In line with a growing general willingness to intervene more strongly in the health system, in 2001 the red-green government started to propose a number of regulations that increasingly restricted the prescription and also the pricing of innovative medicines (see Bandelow & Hartmann, 2015;Hartmann, 2010;Rosenbrock & Gerlinger, 2014): In 2001, they stipulated that, as a rule, pharmacists could offer the cheapest product to the patient provided that the doctor had not explicitly excluded the substitution of the originally prescribed product by a cheaper one with equal active ingredients (aut idem) (The Arzneimittelausgaben-Begrenzungsgesetz, AABG). In 2003, it was determined that insurers could negotiate directly with pharmaceutical firms over rebates for medicines (Gesundheitsmodernisierungsgesetz, GMG).…”