Josef Hedges

Josef Hecken (born August 2, 1959 in Neuwied ) is a German politician ( CDU ) and has been chairman of the Federal Joint Committee since July 1, 2012 . From 2004 to 2008 he was the Saarland Minister of Justice and Health and from 2009 to 2012 State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth .

education and profession

After completing his Abitur at Are Gymnasium Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in 1978 and completing military service , Hecken studied law in Würzburg and Trier from 1980 to 1985 . He completed his legal clerkship at the Higher Regional Court of Koblenz and passed his second state examination in 1988 .

As a consultant for water and waste law, he worked in the higher administrative service of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1988 at the Koblenz district government . In 1990 he became head of the office of the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of the Interior Rudi Geil and his personal advisor. From 1991 to 1998 he headed the office of the Federal Minister of Labor Norbert Blüm and was also head of the management staff in the ministry. In November 1998 he was transferred to temporary retirement as a Ministerialdirektor a. D. After that he worked at Metro AG until 1999 as a department head for fundamental personnel policy issues.

From 1999 to 2004, Hecken was State Secretary in the Saarland Ministry for Women, Labor, Health and Social Affairs under Regina Görner . In the 2004 elections for Mayor of Saarbrücken , Hecken was able to achieve a majority of votes in the first ballot on September 5, but lost the runoff election on September 19 against the SPD candidate Charlotte Britz .

On October 6, 2004, he joined the Müller II cabinet as Minister for Justice, Health and Social Affairs, and from September 3, 2007 as Minister for Justice, Health, Labor and Social Affairs. In 2006 he chaired the Conference of Labor and Social Affairs Ministers .

As health minister, Hecken had granted the Dutch corporation DocMorris the operating license for a branch pharmacy in Saarbrücken in 2006 , which is in contradiction to the German pharmacy law of "owner-managed pharmacies". It was particularly explosive that DocMorris is owned by Celesio AG , a group of Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH , which owns significant shares in Metro AG - von Hecken's former employer. The Saarland Prime Minister Peter Müller (CDU), Josef Hecken and the CEO of Celesio AG Fritz Oesterle had previously jointly declared that the pharmacy market in Germany had to be "liberalized". A short time later, Hecken, contrary to applicable law, granted permission to operate the DocMorris branch. However, the European Court of Justice ruled on May 19, 2009 that the German regulations of the Pharmacy Act did not violate European law, and as a DocMorris branch, the pharmacy had to close immediately.

In May 2008, Hecken resigned from the state government and became President of the Federal Insurance Office (BVA) in Bonn. His successor as minister was Gerhard Vigener .

At the beginning of December 2009, Hecken was supposed to move from the BVA as a permanent state secretary and head of office to the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs . But after the resignation of the then Federal Labor Minister Franz Josef Jung , Ursula von der Leyen became the new Federal Labor Minister and took her State Secretary Gerd Hoofe with her to the new ministry. Hecken then became the new State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs.

On July 1, 2012, he was appointed to succeed Rainer Hess as the so-called impartial chairman of the Federal Joint Committee. This body, made up of representatives from health insurance companies, doctors, dentists, psychotherapists, hospitals and (non-voting) patients, defines in a binding manner for all those involved in the healthcare system which services must be paid for by the statutory health insurance funds.

In November 2013, Der Spiegel made public that Hecken said at a meeting of the umbrella association of statutory health insurance companies that psychotherapy is not needed for every citizen, and sometimes a bottle of beer does too. When asked, Hecken did not distance himself from this statement, but described it as "unhappy because it could be misunderstood". Against the background of months of waiting for psychotherapy places in Germany, this statement triggered outrage among those affected and the professional associations of psychotherapists because the G-BA is determining the need for psychotherapy in Germany and it is questionable whether its chairman is not prejudiced with regard to mental disorders, if he assumes that these can be cured with a warm beer.

Political party

The Junge Union stepped hedges at the 1976th In 1978 he became a member of the CDU. He is currently deputy chairman of the CDU district association Saarbrücken.

Private

Josef Hecken is Roman Catholic , married and has three children.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rheinische Post about the appointment of state secretaries in the BMAS and BMFSFJ  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Press release of the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth , December 2, 2009
3. ↑ Ärzteblatt: The Federal Joint Committee enters its third term of office
4. ↑ Nicola Kuhrt: " New GBA boss Josef Hecken: Mightier than the minister ". In: Spiegel Online , July 25, 2012 (accessed January 5, 2016).
5. ↑ Dennis Ballwieser and Christian Teevs: " Josef Hecken: Functionary recommends beer instead of psychotherapy ". In: Spiegel-Online from November 5, 2013 (accessed January 5, 2016).