[Health care structure legislation--reform of health insurance]

On January 1st, 1993, the German Health Care Structure Reform Act has come into effect. It will fundamentally change the system of health insurance as well as the health care system. By the reform act, new structural and controlling elements have been installed in all central branches of health care, and, at the same time, a new order for the competition between the sickness funds has been established. Far-reaching structural alterations affect the hospital sector, the drug market and the system of ambulatory care. In the hospital sector, there will be a change-over to a price system consisting of special payments, payment according to diagnostic-related groups, and differentiated per-diem rates. On the drug market there will be introduced, besides a drug budget for doctors, a positive list for pharmaceuticals which will be worked out jointly by representatives of the medical profession and the sickness funds. In the ambulatory sector, licensing restrictions for doctors intending to set up practice will be introduced and the importance of the general practitioner or family doctor will be enhanced. The Health Care Structure Reform Act provides for self-government of the sickness funds and the medical profession with a wide range of controlling and shaping instruments. It also places the Ministry of Health in a better position to take influence. After the expire of the budgeting phase, competitive elements resp. extended controlling measures in the contracts sector will become more and more important features of the health care system. It remains to be seen whether the new controlling instruments will suffice to cause the intended limitation of expenditure.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)