Blog #18: Re-Reform!

By Natascha de Raad
reading time: 3 Minuten
 

Last week, I received a letter from our HR department. The subject: increase in long-term care insurance contributions, proof of parenthood required. Long-term care insurance: my mind is already buzzing with terms such as the care crisis, demographic trends and the insolvency reports from operators of important care facilities. There are many construction sites, not just in healthcare policy, and I'm sharing some of these thoughts in today's blog post. 

We live in a country with an enormous backlog of reforms, whether in education, railroads or construction, to name just three areas that spring to mind. Believe me, I would have no problem naming a policy area in need of reform for (almost) every letter of the alphabet. The list as a whole seems almost endless to me - and so do the efforts to change it. As a citizen, I am affected by almost all areas; professionally, it is mainly the issues in health and economic policy that concern me.

As a pharmaceutical logistics company, Med-X-Press is highly dependent on what politicians decide and how we can implement it. Even projects that at first glance have no impact on our business are always part of our considerations, as we have to deal with the long-term consequences. I am thinking, for example, of the recent international study: 25 percent of primary school pupils cannot read properly by the fourth grade and have serious problems with adequate text comprehension. Anyone can imagine what this means for later educational content. 

In general, we are affected by industrial and economic policy measures, such as the implementation of climate protection targets or the Supply Chain Act, but in particular by pharma-specific regulations.  And there is currently movement at all levels.  Brussels is working on the so-called pharmaceutical package, the implementation of sustainability goals and the Supply Chain Act to ensure human and labor rights along the entire product supply chain. 

And what can we hear from the Federal Ministry of Health? 

They are discussing a law called the Act to Combat Supply Bottlenecks and Improve Supply of Medicinal Products (Arzneimittel-Lieferengpassbekämpfungs- und Versorgungsverbesserungsgesetz). In short, the ALBVVG is, and you guessed it, seen by experts as a step in the right direction, but is not considered suitable as a long-term solution to the multiple complications in the pharmaceutical market. 

Other legislative projects are the really big ones: the reform of long-term care insurance and the conditions in the care sector as a whole, the reorganization of the hospital landscape and its financing or the digitalization of the healthcare system, etc... The ongoing issues of electronic patient files and the nationwide introduction of e-prescriptions are far from over. Prof. Karl Lauterbach announced a dozen projects last year, one of which was the much-discussed legalization of cannabis, on the further course of which nobody dares to make a forecast at the moment, as there are too many question marks. I will spare you a list of the individual steps in this procedure, but the project is exemplary and leads me to three points that should not only apply to health policy. 

1. I expect laws to be well crafted (the projects surrounding the heat transition are a good example). 

2. I expect key issues papers or incomplete draft bills not to be leaked. 

My third demand arises from these two points: 

3. I expect a focus on the essentials.

Unfortunately, time and again we have to experience how the really important issues are neglected in the discussion, while details, which are of course just as important, are turned from left to right until the discussion becomes absurd and unintentionally comical. 

That is why I urge you to let us tackle the big issues - not just in the healthcare sector - with an unbiased view, work on the key facts and come up with sustainable solutions. I know that the addressees are in Berlin, but we can take a stand by exchanging ideas, sensitize others to issues in our environment and in personal networks and work together to achieve sustainable, future-oriented results. 

I look forward to hearing your views, please feel free to write to me: blog@med-x-press.de