Federal Minister of Health Nina Warken has appointed the ten members of the new Health Finance Commission. Among them are Prof. Dr. Leonie Sundmacher and Prof. Dr. Michael Laxy from the Department of Health and Sport Sciences. The commission also includes Prof. Dr. Amelie Wuppermann from the University of Bayreuth. This means that three members from the Munich Center for Health Economics and Policy (M-CHEP) have been appointed to the commission.
The commission’s task is to develop measures to ensure the long-term stabilization of contribution rates in the statutory health insurance system (GKV). It is composed of ten experts from the fields of economics, medicine, social law, ethics, and prevention.
Prof. Sundmacher, Head of the Associate Professorship of Health Economics, emphasized: “I hope to contribute to ensuring that access and care within the statutory health insurance system will remain secure in the coming decades. I am particularly pleased that with Amelie Wuppermann, Michael Laxy, and myself, three researchers from our Munich Center for Health Economics and Policy have been appointed to the commission. We are a young center and deeply grateful for the trust placed in us.”
The research center M-CHEP currently comprises 16 chairs and professorships at the Technical University of Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, the University of Augsburg, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, and the University of Bayreuth. Its goal is to strengthen collaboration in health economics and health policy in Bavaria on a sustainable basis.
Prof. Laxy, Head of the Assistant Professorship of Public Health and Prevention, added: “The challenge is significant, and time is pressing. I am therefore very pleased to be able to work with such highly esteemed colleagues to develop reform proposals for stabilizing the statutory health insurance system and its contribution rates.”
The commission will operate in a two-stage process: An initial report with short-term measures addressing major cost drivers and inefficiencies in the system is scheduled for March 2026. A second report, to be published by December 2026, will present structural reform proposals aimed at curbing expenditure growth in the medium to long term and stabilizing the revenue base of the statutory health insurance system.
Prof. Wuppermann also looks forward to the upcoming tasks: “I am very much looking forward to the work in the commission and hope to contribute to reforms that sustainably stabilize statutory health insurance while fitting coherently into a longer-term social policy framework.”
To the Press release of the Federal Ministry of Health
To the Homepage of the Associate Professorship of Health Economics
To the Homepage of the Assistant Professorship of Public Health and Prevention
To the Homepage of the Munich Center for Health Economics and Policy (M-CHEP)
Contact
Prof. Dr. Leonie Sundmacher
Associate Professorship of Health Economics
TUM Campus im Olympiapark
Am Olympiacampus 11
80809 Munich
Tel.: +49 89 289 24464
E-Mail: leonie.sundmacher(at)tum.de
Prof. Dr. Michael Laxy
Assistant Professorship of Public Health and Prevention
TUM Campus im Olympiapark
Am Olympiacampus 11
80809 Munich
Tel.: +49 89 289 24977
E-Mail: michael.laxy(at)tum.de
Text & Photos: Bastian Daneyko