Our health policy is centred around patients, and the quality of the medical provision and long-term care they receive. Everyone who holds health insurance should benefit from advances in medical technology. At the same time, it is necessary to balance revenues and expenditure across the statutory health insurance system. The Committee on Health therefore works in a field that is subject to many competing demands. Its agenda features topics such as the funding of statutory sickness insurance, the redefinition of the criteria used to assess need for long-term care and the nationwide provision of medical care. Medical ethics issues such as organ donations and euthanasia constitute another priority area.