No hole in budget, says Austria's Health Minister

Maria Rauch-Kallat, Austria's Health Minister, has denied claims by the country's health funds that they are headed for a deficit in this election year. Mrs Rauch-Kallat's Austrian People's Party (OVP) and its coalition partner the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZO) face elections on October 1.

An aggregate deficit of 154.0 million euros ($197.0 million) for the first half of this year has been posted by 21 of Austria's health funds. Despite this, Mrs Rauch-Kallat insists that the situation will break even for the whole year, adding that the health fund forecasts often show discrepancies with actual end-of-year returns.

The FOPI, the research-based drug industry association that mostly includes US drugmakers and subsidiaries in Austria among its members, has provided some support for the Austrian Health Minister's position. The FOPI's president, Boudewijn Van Bochove, predicting that drug spending in Austria for the year would rise by an average of 4%, mostly because of increased volume demand rather than price increases. Mr Van Bochove also suggested that reducing value-added tax on drugs, from 20% to 10%, would reduce the drugs bill by 175.0 million euros.