Tasks and organisation of the Federal Ministry of Health
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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.
Another focus of the BMG is health protection and disease control. 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.
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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 is to ensure the safety of biological medicinal products such as blood products.
Beyond that, the Ministry supports research and prevention and facilitates new care structures; this applies, for instance, to mental health, common non-communicable diseases (including cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes), assistance services for chronically ill persons, child 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 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. In line with the Digitalisation Strategy for Health and Long-term Care, the Ministry pushes ahead with digital transformation and drafting 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. The National Health Portal provides current, reliable and plain language health information towards that end. 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.
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.
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.
Central challenges that call for European and international cooperation on public health include the spread of infectious diseases, the prevention and control of pandemics and non-communicable diseases (such as cancers), the health impacts of climate change, the diversification of supply chains for medicinal products as well as the health workforce shortage – particularly the nursing shortfall.
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) 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.
Within the framework of multilateral health policy, the BMG advocates for the strengthening 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.
Moreover, the Ministry is also committed to health equity as a major aspect of the integration and participation of the 23.9 million people with a migration history in Germany (Destatis 2023). 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, recruitment and integration of professionals, 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.