Lauterbach plan for drugs: A “gift for pharmaceutical companies”?

Fever and cough syrups are rare. Health Minister Lauterbach wants to change that with an amendment to the law. Because this would make some medicines more expensive, the insurance companies speak of a “gift for pharmaceutical companies”.

The key issues paper by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) against the shortage of various medicines has provoked different reactions.

The statutory health insurance companies (GKV) were critical. The CEO of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, Doris Pfeiffer, said that increasing the fixed amount for certain children’s medications or cancer therapies by a flat rate of 50 percent was “an impressive Christmas present for the pharmaceutical companies”. It is unclear whether medicines will be delivered to Europe more reliably in the future or even more will be produced again.

Instead of just relying on short-term effects that insured persons would have to finance through their contributions, politicians are expected to take a strategic approach for the whole of Europe, emphasized Pfeiffer.

Statutory health insurance physicians satisfied with the proposal

According to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), however, Lauterbach’s proposal goes in the right direction. “It is the right approach, among other things, to relax the price rules for children’s medicines and to abolish fixed prices and discount agreements,” said Stephan Hofmeister, Deputy CEO of the KBV.

FDP for changes to the law

Lauterbach also gets approval from politics. She welcomes the key issues paper, said the health policy spokeswoman for the FDP, Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus, of the AFP news agency. Supply shortages of medicines have been neglected for decades.

Lauterbach’s party friend, SPD leader Saskia Esken, also welcomed his initiative. “The state has a duty to act here.” The supply of vital medicines in particular must be “separated from purely economic interests,” she told the dpa news agency.

Lauterbach presented a key issues paper

Lauterbach had previously announced significant changes in the price rules in his key issues paper in response to supply bottlenecks, especially for children’s medicines. He therefore wants to ensure that the price regulations for children’s medicines are relaxed, medicines from European manufacturers come into play again and stocks of the cheapest medicines are created. Financial incentives are also intended to make medicines for adult cancer care and antibiotics more readily available.

In order to achieve this, statutory health insurance companies should be able to pay up to 1.5 times the previous maximum amount for required medicines in the event of bottlenecks. The co-payment for the patients on the medicines, on the other hand, should be limited.

Drugs should come from Europe again

One reason for the scarcity of cancer drugs and antibiotics is that the health insurance companies have to conclude contracts with the cheapest manufacturers and the pharmacies are then only allowed to sell these drugs. Production was concentrated in low-wage countries and the number of suppliers fell.

According to the plans, manufacturers who produce cancer drugs and antibiotics in Europe should be considered again in future tenders. This should lead to production there being ramped up again, said Lauterbach im joint morning magazine from ARD and ZDF.

In order to prevent future bottlenecks in the supply of required medicines, the Federal Ministry of Health plans to develop criteria that will help identify problems at an early stage. The measures taken are to be evaluated by the end of 2025.

Drug barter dangerous

In the morning magazine, on the other hand, Lauterbach rated a kind of swap deal with medicines that were scarcely available as dangerous.

The idea originally came from the President of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt. In a newspaper interview, he had suggested organizing “flea markets for medicines in the neighborhood” in view of the shortage of medicines, especially for children.

The pediatrician Tilman Kaethner, board member of the professional association of paediatricians, is skeptical like Lauterbach. That was unrealistic and not thought through to the end, he said in an interview with the Evangelical Press Service. However, if neighbors help each other out with fever juices or other non-prescription “home remedies”, there is nothing to be said against that. “It’s already done a lot anyway,” he explained.