The German Health Care System

Understanding and accessing the largest health care market in Europe

With a total volume of around EUR 320 billion, Germany is a large and attractive health care market. Like most other mature systems, the financing and provision of health is complicated, ever-changing and massively influenced by special-interest groups. The duality of social and private health insurance, the importance of data protection, the governing function of the Ministry of Health, the inherently private for-profit nature of most providers and the importance of corporate co-operatives managing the self-administration are some of the key elements in this system.

This book is intended for the international reader wanting to get a swift yet comprehensive introduction into how health care is delivered, financed and governed in Germany. It will assist in preparing for working in Germany, devising a market access strategy and identifying potential pitfalls and misunderstandings when dealing with German counterparts.

The editors are uniquely qualified in presenting this introduction as they all have more than 20 years’ experience, come from different professional backgrounds and have worked in different functions across the system.