The remit of the Committee on Health largely covers the portfolio of the corresponding Federal Ministry. For the 15th electoral term, social security was included in the ambit of the Committee, reflecting the responsibilities of the former Ministry of Health and Social Security. Following the Federal Chancellor’s organisational order of 22 November 2005 and its assignment of a catalogue of responsibilities to the Federal Ministry of Health, the Committee on Health was established by the German Bundestag at the start of its 16th electoral term with the following main areas of responsibility:

• health insurance: the law governing benefits and contributions, the law governing panel doctors and medical associations and their supervision, the economic aspects of medical and dental treatment, the supply of medicinal products and of remedial aids and appliances, the work of the Board of Experts for Concerted Action in the Public Health Sector and measures designed to ensure universal health-insurance cover;
  
• health care: medical issues relating to the statutory health-insurance scheme, fundamental issues of hospital treatment and hospital funding, quality-assurance and quality-management issues and the provision of advice and information to insured persons and service providers;
  
• long-term care insurance: issues relating to eligibility criteria, the law governing benefits and contributions and the social security of carers, medical and nursing aspects of long-term care insurance, the law governing contracts for long-term care and quality-assurance and adaptability problems relating to services provided under care-insurance schemes;
  
• medicinal drugs, pharmacology and medical devices: the supply and safety of  medicinal products, the law governing medicinal products and pharmacies, including the practice of pharmacological professions;
  
• general health care, the practice of health professions, transmissible diseases, AIDS and genetic engineering: general issues concerning the health system in relation to doctors, patients’ rights, ethical issues, the law governing reproductive medicine and the use of genetic engineering and biotechnology in the treatment of human beings, neurological and psychiatric disorders, the prevention of   transmissible diseases, health education, promotion of self-help and participation in health care and the care of persons with disabilities, alternative medicine, consumer protection in the public-health sector, environment-related health protection and health professions for graduates and non-graduates;
  
• prevention: tackling addiction-related problems and encouraging self-help in the realm of health care.

The Committee on Health has 31 members; the parliamentary groups of the CDU/CSU and SPD each provide eleven members, while the FDP, The Left Party and Alliance 90/The Greens each provide three. The Committee is chaired by Dr Martina Bunge (The Left Party), with Dr Hans Georg Faust (CDU/CSU) as deputy chair. The spokespersons of the parliamentary groups on the Committee are Mr Jens Spahn for the CDU/CSU, Dr Carola Reimann for the SPD, Mr Heinz Lafermann for the FDP, Mr Frank Spieth for The Left Party and Dr Harald Terpe for Alliance 90/The Greens.

Every year the Committee discusses a large number of bills and motions on the subjects listed above. In this context, it regularly conducts public hearings and expert discussions in order to obtain a comprehensive and, as far as possible, independent picture of the subject under discussion. To this end it invites experts from all sections of society that are significantly affected by the proposal in question; these experts are nominated by the parliamentary groups. In some cases, even experts from other countries, such as representatives of the European Commission, are invited in order to enhance the parliamentary decision-making process through their specialised knowledge and experience.

Even though health legislation is essentially a national responsibility, a steadily increasing number of EU proposals are also referred to the Committee for deliberation. These are often proposals from the Commission for European directives, which will subsequently have to be transposed into German law and will then come back to the Committee in the form of national legislative bills; these relate chiefly to medicinal products but also include instruments such as the European Parliament and Council Directive on setting standards of quality and safety for the donation, procurement, testing, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human tissues and cells.   

Exercising its right to take up issues on its own initiative, the Committee on Health also deals regularly with matters arising within its own area of responsibility and obtains information from the Federal Government on developments in the field of health policy and on topical issues such as the current financial position of the statutory health-insurance scheme or progress towards the introduction of the electronic health card.

During the 15th electoral term, the work of the Committee on Health and Social Security focused chiefly on health reforms, the effort to secure sustainable funding of the pensions scheme and the amendment of statutory provisions relating to medicinal products. In the face of continuing major challenges, particularly those posed by demographic change and by progress in medicine and medical technology, the constantly advancing development of the health system will again be at the top of the agenda for the 16th electoral term. Under the terms of the coalition agreement concluded by the CDU and CSU and the SPD on 11 November 2005, the core of this effort will be reforms designed to guarantee an efficient health service that can cope with demographic change and go on providing patients with high-quality care and to ensure that the system is funded in accordance with the precepts of solidarity and satisfaction of needs. In addition, a Prevention and Health Promotion Act (Präventionsgesetz) is intended to improve cooperation and coordination of activities in the field of disease prevention and enhance the overall quality of measures taken by social insurers and service providers without creating unnecessary red tape. Systematic action will be taken to restructure the domain of health care along competitive lines. In the light of current demographic trends, a master strategy for the support of people in need of care, people with disabilities and the elderly is deemed essential. Lastly, in order to ensure that people in need of long-term care continue to receive adequate and appropriate care at affordable prices, the Committee will have to engage in efforts to guarantee the fair and sustainable funding of long-term care insurance.