[Rehabilitation from the economic viewpoint in relation to the legal social security insurance].

Rehabilitation increasingly focuses on patients' chronic diseases and a restricted efficiency in job and everyday life. In Germany, the specialized rehabilitation system has been adapted to this development and produced particular successful, holistic, and interdisciplinary concepts which involve medical, occupational, and social benefits. Medical rehabilitation as a field discipline and treatment method has been advanced continuously and can not be compared with acute or curative care. During recent years rehabilitation expenses increased constantly; however, the cost increase corresponds to the rise of the actual need. The share of all rehabilitation expenses (rehabilitation providers, types of benefit) in health care benefits is between 6% and 7% and consequently considerably lower than hospital charges, for example. Economy in rehabilitation, as it now is especially intended through a restrictive rehabilitation benefit budgeting for the statutory pension insurance, will not reduce health care expenses in all. On the one hand, it is to be expected that benefits for pensions and care will rise in the medium term. On the other hand, economy in rehabilitation will produce additional expenses in other health care sectors without being more effective. Since the need for rehabilitation benefits will further increase due to demographic development, new priorities should be set in favor of patients with chronic diseases.