[Options for continued development of medical care].

The German health care system is currently faced with challenges that stem from the changing demographic structure of the population as well as from the increasing implementation of costly technological advances in diagnosis and treatment in the presence of inadequate preventive and rehabilitative structures. Ever-rising expectations and demands on the part of German citizens and the increasing number of doctors are threatening to overburden the increasingly limited financial resources of the health care system. The pressure for allocatory measures has led to intense competition amongst the various specialties and sectors of the health care system. In this paper the author describes the current developments with regard to the evolution of the health care system in the near future. He predicts an increasing demand for long-term care facilities especially for the elderly, for more easily accessible rehabilitative services as well as a continuing increasing demand for high-tech services. The pressure of these qualitative as well as quantitative demands in the face of intersectoral competition and limited financial resources will necessarily lead to a restructuring of the professional as well as non-professional system with new forms of organization for in-patient as well as out-patient services that will address these issues.