The health industry – value creation, growth and employment

As a result of demographic trends, progress in medical technology and increased health awareness, we are witnessing a rapid rise in demand for products and services related to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and care. This means that there is major potential for innovation and value creation in the health sector. We want to show what these potentials are and enable them to be fully developed. Health should become a part of the German “corporate identity”. We can boost momentum and success in this field if policymakers work to reduce bureaucracy, pursue deregulation and liberalisation of health markets, and encourage increased freedom of competition instead of imposing legal and administrative restrictions. Germany has the potential to become a “competence centre for health”, thereby improving individuals’ quality of life, economic value creation and employment. The BDI has therefore been focusing its attention on the subject of the health sector for some years and is developing its positions in the BDI committee on the healthcare industry.

“An important goal is the development of a cross-industry political perspective for all companies active in the health sector”. This was how Professor Wolfgang Plischke, founding chairman of the BDI committee on the healthcare industry, described the committee’s intentions at its inaugural meeting on 17 September 2012. The health industry is a highly diverse sector, encompassing medical technology, the pharmaceutical industry, information technology and the electronics industry, machine building, the textile industry, industry-related services and much more besides. In companies in all these areas, ranging from small start-ups to major corporations, people work for human health. They need a good, secure enabling environment so that they can continue to do this in future. Around 230,000 companies and almost five million workers in the health sector form a central pillar of the German economy. We support the creation of a policy environment that will maintain and strengthen Germany’s competence as an effective and globally attractive location for healthcare services.