Education
Lauterbach studied human medicine at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen University, University of Texas at San Antonio, and University of Düsseldorf, where he graduated. From 1989–1992 he studied health policy and management as well as epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, graduating with a Doctor of Science in 1992.
Career
He is professor of health economics and epidemiology at the University of Cologne. From 1992–1993 he held a fellowship at the Harvard Medical School. Since 1998 Lauterbach has been director of the institute of health economy and clinical epidemiology at the University of Cologne, and he was appointed adjunct professor at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2008.
Lauterbach joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 2001.
He made his entry to the Bundestag with a direct mandate by winning in his electoral district Leverkusen - Cologne IV at the federal elections 2005. Lauterbach is a strong advocate of the so-called Bürgerversicherung, mainly favoured by the Social Democrats.
These idea includes the reorganization of the German health system and the incorporation of all people and all income groups into the financing of the health care system. Karl Lauterbach was married to Angela Spelsberg, who is the medical director of a tumour centre in Aachen, until their divorce in 2010.
They have four children.
Politics
Social Democratic Party of Germany, Christian Democratic Union.
Membership
He was a member of the Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der Entwicklung im Gesundheitswesen ("Council of Experts for the development of health system") from 1999 until he was elected to the Bundestag in September 2005. He was a member of the Rürup-Kommission, a committee of experts that was established to review the financing of the social insurance systems In the Bundestag he is a member of the committee on health politics.