German Funds Slammed Over Savings

Hans-Ruediger Vogel, president of the German drug industry association, the BPI, says it is now clear that the health funds want to achieve savings at patients' expense as well as controlling the definition of which drugs are "ineffective" or "controversial."

The local funds' claim that removing such drugs from reimbursement would save 9 billion Deutschemarks ($6.07 billion) was "not serious," he said. Virtually overnight, the funds revised their "entirely unrealistic" savings estimate from 6 billion marks to 9 billion marks, which shows they see the drug sector as a handy way of dealing with their financial deficit at a stroke, he said, and called this "dangerous."

Prof Vogel said drugs' share of health spending has fallen steadily, to 11.7% in western Germany in 1995 from 15.3% in 1992. Drug prices have also fallen for several years. If the disputed drugs were removed from reimbursement, doctors could prescribe even more effective and often dearer drugs which would undermine some of the funds' "fictitious" savings estimates, he said. Or, doctors could tell patients to pay for their own drugs; this would affect mainly older people and young families with children.