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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:
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.