The Bundestag passed several legislative projects this Friday. This also included a request from the Ministry of Health to counteract supply bottlenecks in medicines. At the beginning of the final debate, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) spoke and briefly presented the proposed law again.
For many years, there have been complaints about supply bottlenecks for medicines, especially for substances that are not subject to patent protection, he said. What began with aspirin ten years ago has spread to drugs such as ibuprofen to combat pain and gastric acid inhibitors. Today, 450 active ingredients would be missing, an “unsustainable situation,” said the minister. Repeated attempts have been made to solve the problem with self-commitments. “That was wrong,” said Lauterbach. The minister reminded that meanwhile even important medicines for children or important medicines for cancer patients are not available in Germany, but in the rest of Europe they are.
The law provides several points to counteract the development. The first is a safety buffer. For all medicines with discount contracts from health insurance companies, manufacturers should have to stock up – and one as large as an average delivery quantity for six months. Initially, a three-month buffer was planned. The association of manufacturers of off-patent drugs, Pro Generika, has already warned that there is a lack of production capacity for this. In addition, warehousing causes more costs – and that intensifies the cost pressure, which is considered one of the reasons for exits from production.
There should no longer be any discount agreements for children’s medicines, with which prices for the health insurers as bulk buyers are pushed down. Manufacturers should also be allowed to raise their sales prices once by up to 50 percent of the last applicable “fixed amount” – i.e. the maximum amount that the statutory health insurance companies have paid for a preparation so far. There should then no longer be any new fixed amounts for children’s medication. In addition, a delivery quantity for four weeks should generally have to be kept in stock at wholesalers.
In the long term, one must also ensure that the production of the means takes place in Europe again, said Lauterbach. That is why every manufacturer who wants to have a discount agreement must be able to prove that half of its production is in Europe. This will not be implemented quickly, but is an important step in the long term to combat the problem.
The CDU criticized the law as a “placebo” because the proposed changes would not lead to better availability of the missing drugs as promised by the minister. The law does not go far enough, since cancer drugs, for example, would not be manufactured quickly in Europe by “tweaking the discount screw”. The left criticized that discount contracts should only be restricted for children’s medicines. The current system promotes dangerous monopolies in the pharmaceutical industry. The CDU, AfD and Left voted against the law, but the traffic light was in favor.
Law on immigration of skilled workers passed
Also on the agenda of the Bundestag was a law with which the federal government wants to lower the hurdles for the immigration of workers. The Skilled Immigration Act was approved with the votes of the coalition. The Bundestag has “written history” with it, said Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) after the vote.
Germany will get “the most modern immigration law in the world” by passing the draft law, said Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD). The next step must be “significantly reducing bureaucracy” in order to make the journey to Germany less difficult for qualified workers.
One of the new features of the law is the so-called opportunity card based on a points system. The criteria for which there are points include language skills, professional experience, age and connection to Germany. In the future, IT specialists should also be able to come without a university degree, provided they can demonstrate certain qualifications. It should also be easier for asylum seekers who entered the country before March 29, 2023 and who are working or have the prospect of a qualified job.
The reform is a “sham” criticized the deputy leader of the Union faction, Andrea Lindholz. Instead of paving the way for skilled workers, the level demanded by migrant workers in terms of training and language is being lowered. Gökay Akbulut (left) said it was good that in the future professionals could bring their parents and parents-in-law to them even without proof of housing. The fact that working migrants without special qualifications are not allowed to do this is “a two-tier migration policy” that her parliamentary group rejects.
Training and further education funding decided
A law on the promotion of training and further education was also passed. It envisages that young people should be given better financial support and advice on their way to training and a job. Two thirds of the long-term unemployed in Germany have not completed vocational training, said Labor Minister Heil in the debate. “We’re digging up the offspring of this development.”
Vocational training is to be supported primarily by various financial instruments. One is the so-called qualification allowance for employees who are particularly affected by structural change. The Federal Employment Agency is to make wage replacement payments of 60 percent during a period of further training if employees can be given “future-proof employment” in the same company as a result of the further training.
Criticism of the Further Education Act came primarily from the left. Low-skilled people in the low-wage sector, who most urgently need further training, would not be reached by the measures, criticized Left-wing MP Jessica Tatti. The Union criticized that the traffic light does not do enough to make the measures known to small and medium-sized companies and to adapt the measures to these company sizes.
Electricity price brake will be adjusted
The opposition and the government also disagreed about improvements to the electricity price brake, which was passed in parliament. While the traffic light emphasized that the improvements would ensure that gaps in the previous law would be closed, the Union criticized that despite the improvements, small and medium-sized businesses were still “categorically excluded”. In addition, there would be major problems with the taxation of the relief.