ABSTRACT
In medical ethics many conflicts arise from the issue of costs. This chapter analyses some of the major consequences of compulsory sickness insurance for the health care market in Germany. Germany's health care system is financed through statutory sickness insurance schemes and controlled by self-administrated institutions. It represents an alternative situated between – at one end of the spectrum – government-funded and state-controlled health care systems and – at the other end of the spectrum – health care systems which are largely organised as a free market economy. The chapter shows that the prime mover in the health care market, with its role of 'buyer' and representing the 'demand function' on the market, i.e. the sickness insurance schemes, was gradually deprived of most of its power to control expenses. Both Germany's and Britain's health care systems, although financed differently, aim at equity in the allocation of resources to all citizens.
