Comment: A fresh perspective as an opportunity

Nina Warken (CDU) is the designated new Federal Minister of Health. This is a surprise—and that, in turn, is no surprise. For the pharmacists' profession, the appointment represents an opportunity, comments PZ editor-in-chief Alexander Müller.

In the reporting on the current papal election, the following sentence must never be missing: "Whoever goes into the conclave as Pope comes out as a cardinal." Applied to the German health care system, this fate befell Tino Sorge ( CDU ). The former health policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU was considered a hot candidate for the ministerial post until recently.

At least he can console himself with the position of Parliamentary State Secretary . Together with his party colleague Georg Kippels, the ministry's top management will thus also have a wealth of health policy expertise.

Warken, on the other hand, may be no stranger to party politics, but no one had her on their radar as Federal Minister of Health. Once again. Because that's more of a rule when it comes to the allocation of portfolios: No one had expected her predecessors, Hermann Gröhe (CDU) and Philipp Rösler (FDP), to be the new federal government. Jens Spahn (CDU) had also served as his parliamentary group's health policy spokesperson before becoming minister, but then took a detour to the Finance Ministry as State Secretary. And Karl Lauterbach (SPD) was practically directly elected to office by the Twitter community.

Warken, a lawyer, has recently focused primarily on domestic policy and legal issues, rarely on health policy . This doesn't have to be a disadvantage. To further develop the complex health care system, every minister needs support from within the ministry anyway. An unbiased outside perspective can even help expose supposed necessities as outdated dogmas and identify and correct injustices within the system. The stagnating pharmacy fees, the cost risk associated with high-priced products, or the zero-reimbursement of health insurance funds must seem absurd to any newcomer to the health care system.

And the industry has seen over the past three and a half years that the professional expertise of a doctor in a ministerial chair is no guarantee of forward-looking health policy. To put it bluntly: This time, it wasn't just a matter of who became a minister, but also who didn't stay.