Free choice of sickness funds: economic implications and ethical aspects of the 1992 health care reform in Germany.
To properly comply with the Health Sector Act of 1992 a functioning competition should be introduced in the interests of the insured of the German Statutory Health Insurance, while still maintaining the principle of solidarity. This is a critical order-political aim, because the principles of solidarity and self-responsibility as typically understood are functionally in contradiction. This paper analyzes the important measures of the Organizational Reform and concludes, that the principle of self-responsibility ought to obtain priority. Therefore, the German legislature ought to focus on further competitively oriented reform steps.
Cassel
D
D
Gerhard Mercator Universität, Duisburg, Germany.
Boroch
W
W
D003256:Community Participation; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration; D004465:Economic Competition; D004989:Ethics; D005858:Germany; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration; D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011057:Politics; D012935:Social Justice; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013222:State Medicine