[Right to health. Perspective of the statutory health insurance]

This essay is concerned with the topic 'right to health' from the perspective of a health insurance company. Following an outline of the legal foundation, aspects regarding benefit restrictions within the context of the contemporary political health discourse are discussed. The AOK's viewpoints and demands regarding patient sovereignty are represented under the rubrics of: information and transparency, consumer protection and self-help groups, quality of health care, treatment error management, doctor contract codification, error reduction management and expanding avenues for participation. The section "Health insurance companies fortify patient rights" exemplifies the efforts and activities of the AOK Berlin. These include the Disease Management Program Breast Cancer, a patient survey regarding home nursing care, and AOK Berlin's contributions to "A Healthy City" - a project based on the initiative of the WHO's Ottawa Charta. Furthermore, "prevention" and "setting" proposals, treatment error management, and complaint management are presented. In conclusion, the goals of deploying patient sovereignty, taking into consideration essential limitations of health insurance benefits, are redeveloped and linked with the demands for further development of patient rights.