– both claim and aspiration of the health economic research center CINCH in Essen.

The current public debate on health care in Germany revolves around the conflict between providing comprehensive and high-quality medical services on the one hand and curbing the costs of health care on the other. More competition in the markets for health care and insurance can help mitigate this trade-off. Issues of competition in health care are therefore at the core of health economics research at CINCH, which is organized within two junior research groups and several complementary projects.

CINCH brings together three notable health economics research institutions in the region: the RWI – Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung in Essen with its health economics division, Faculty for Economic and Business Administration of Duisburg-Essen University with two health economics-oriented chairs, and the Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. An exchange program as well as national and international research cooperations round out the center’s network. CINCH is funded through the Ministry of Education and Research’s initiative "Zentren der gesundheitsökonomischen Forschung".