Tasks of the Federal Ministry of Health
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Bundesgesundheitsministerium Berlin
The Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), with offices in Bonn and Berlin, is responsible for a wide variety of policy areas. The work of the Ministry is essentially focused on the drafting of bills and ordinances as well as administrative regulations.
Its central tasks include safeguarding and advancing the efficiency of the statutory health insurance and long-term care insurance systems, strengthening patients’ interests, enhancing patient safety as well as ensuring the cost-effectiveness and affordability of the healthcare system.
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BMG-Gebäude in Bonn
Other focus areas of the BMG include health promotion and disease prevention, national and international health protection as well as disease control. Based on the provisions of the Prevention Act, the statutory health and long-term care insurance funds, in collaboration with the BMG and other ministries, the Länder, the private health insurers as well as other social security institutions, support the population in pursuing a healthy lifestyle. The Protection against Infection Act (IfSchG) clearly emphasises the importance of prevention, advice and individual responsibility for avoiding infections and it strengthens the public health system. In addition, the Act is the basis for provisions on healthy, clean drinking water as well as water for swimming and bathing.
The BMG also sets the legislative framework for the manufacture, clinical trialling, marketing authorisation, distribution channels and monitoring of medicinal products and medical devices to ensure that the high requirements for their quality, effectiveness and safety are fulfilled. A key perennial task of the BMG and its subordinate authorities (see below) is to ensure the safety of biological medicinal products such as blood products.
Beyond that, the Ministry promotes public health through research and disease prevention as well as improvements in healthcare; this applies, for instance, to mental health, common non-communicable diseases (including cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia), the Long COVID condition as a long-term health effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, assistance services for chronically ill persons, child and adolescent health as well as the counselling and care of HIV-infected persons and persons living with AIDS. To continuously improve the body of knowledge on the state of people’s health and keep it up to date, the necessary data are collected and evaluated in the context of health monitoring and the ‘Health in Germany’ panel, and the resulting information then shared with policy-makers, the scientific community and the general public as part of health reporting.
Data also play a key role in the digital transformation of the health and long-term care systems. The BMG supports the digitalisation of the public health service (ÖGD), particularly regarding the connectivity of public health offices, and improves the exchange of data. The BMG funds technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and specific methods of connecting data sources, thereby enabling the faster and more precise detection of health risks. The Ministry will push ahead with the digital transformation and the drafting of the framework governing health data use for health research and care purposes.
Mature and responsible insurance members and informed patients are as essential to a healthcare system as laws and regulations. Another vital element is health literacy, defined as the ability to find, understand and use health information. To this end, the National Health Portal provides current, reliable and plain language health information on the topics of healthcare, long-term care, digital health and healthy living. Extensive knowledge is also useful for disease prevention and control, since it helps to avoid health risks – which includes a wide array of information on drug and addiction risks as well as climate change-induced health risks (particularly regarding heat protection).
The licensing of medical and allied health professions and thus the training for those professions are regulated under federal law. The BMG supports the federal legislator by preparing the draft training regulations for each of those professions in an effort to ensure uniform quality standards for professional practice and, implicitly, care provided throughout Germany.
Alongside the inpatient and outpatient care sectors, the public health service (ÖGD) is another integral part of the German healthcare system. While a doctor’s or hospital’s task is to ensure that each individual patient receives the best possible care, the public health service focuses on the health of the population as a whole. Its primary tasks are health protection, health promotion and the provision of counselling and information. The public health service consists of health administration bodies on the Federal, Länder and municipal level. On the Federal level, this includes the BMG as well as its Federal-level authorities: the Federal Institute of Public Health, the Robert Koch Institute and the Paul Ehrlich Institute.
European and International Health Policy
European and international health policy is a central part of the BMG’s remit. In an increasingly globalised world that involves intensive travel and close networking with other countries and particularly our European neighbours, joint efforts are required to effectively manage cross-border health threats. In addition, the current geopolitical situation calls for crisis-resilient and strong healthcare systems, including an innovative and competitive drugs and medical devices industry in Europe.
A central goal is to ensure the supply of critical medicines and medical devices by, for instance, strengthening the EU as a production location and promoting stable and diversified supply chains. But this is not the only area in which European and international health policy cooperation is required. Other priority areas include the prevention and control of infectious diseases and pandemics as well as of non-communicable diseases (such as cancers), the health impacts of climate change and the health workforce shortage – particularly in long-term care.
The BMG represents the Federal Government’s position on health policy topics in various international bodies. Those include the European Union, the Council of Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Moreover, the BMG represents the Federal Government’s position on the public health topics addressed by the G7 and G20. The aim is to identify and implement approaches to resolving global health issues together with international partners.
The goal of the BMG’s bilateral health policy is to pursue cooperation and the exchange of experience with partner countries based on mutual interest: This includes the exchange with neighbouring countries, e.g. on cross-border events, with EU Member States on projects and issues at the European level as well as with focus countries worldwide, such as India, Japan, the US and Ukraine.
One of the priority topics of the current EU legislative period is resilience, meaning preparedness, safety and competitiveness. These priorities also provide the framework for important health-related projects, which the BMG seeks to advance in order to ensure better and more adaptable healthcare. Projects of particular import include the proposal on a Critical Medicines Act and the revision of the EU pharmaceutical legislation (EU pharma package), but also a revision of the EU legislation on medical devices.
Within the framework of multilateral health policy, the BMG advocates for the strengthening and sustainable funding of international global health institutions and organisations – first and foremost WHO, which plays a leading and coordinating role at the centre of the global health architecture. In this context, the BMG champions, among other things, the promotion of universal quality health coverage throughout the world, thus making a significant contribution towards implementing the 2030 Agenda and achieving SDG 3 on “health and well-being”.
Moreover, the Ministry is committed to health equity as a major aspect of the integration and participation of the 21.2 million people with a migration history in Germany (Destatis 2024). In concrete terms, this approach includes target group-specific information and outreach in various languages and support for pilot projects, including in the fields of transcultural opening, integration into the health and care workforce, preventive healthcare as well as improving the body of data. Here the Ministry works cooperatively together with several national and international organisations and associations to, for instance, jointly develop and implement measures to eliminate barriers to accessing healthcare.
With these policies, the BMG makes a vital contribution to safeguarding and improving human health – both nationally and internationally.
Commissioners of the Federal Government
Federal Commissioners based at the BMG are:
Subordinate authorities of the BMG
The subordinate authorities of the BMG are: