Germany’s electronic health card was meant to be introduced on 1 January 2006. The company responsible, gematik, was founded in 2005 by the umbrella organizations of the health care system. Half of the votes belonged to the health insurers. The other half belonged to the associations of doctors, dentists, hospitals and pharmacists. The introduction was delayed again and again. Critics said that the interest groups made gematik almost unable to decide, because they could not agree on central questions. In 2010 the German Medical Assembly voted to abandon the project in its existing form. Only from 1 January 2015 did the old insurance card stop counting as proof of insurance. In 2019 the federal government took 51 percent of gematik, and decisions since then have been made by simple majority.