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Oral presentation

The expenses for the development of innovative drugs in Germany will increase in the future. The main reasons for this are the following:

Demographic developments effect a change of costs in the public health insurance system.

The expectations concerning the quality of drug supply continually rise.

The medical research is expensive. Its benefits do not last for a long period of time.

It is obvious that the demand for high-quality health care services grows faster than it could be paid by the contribution of the public health insurance system. Thus it is necessary to stabilize it by regulatory actions.

The implementation of a cost-benefit-evaluation for new drugs is at issue. No valid criteria exist to decide about the actual and long-time benefit of new or improved drugs; the monetary evaluation of non-monetary aspects (for e.g. quality of life) seems to be ethically doubtful.

It will be absolutely necessary to reform the system of public health insurance. Its actual crisis is based on several faults committed in the last century. Actually, patients do not take any individual responsibility for their individual health status at the moment: They have no opportunity to choose between different medical services, and the contribution which has to be paid is related with the income of the patient. Therefore a private health insurance should take the place of today´s public health insurance system The utilisation of health care pursuant to the personal demands is a fundamental part of a free and liberal social structure.

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