Medicines drug prices are rising

Medicines: Drug prices are rising. Health insurance must adjust to rising costs.

Insured persons are again facing rising costs. After practice fee and additional contributions, the insured expect from September 1, 2010 also higher costs for drugs. Because the new co-payment exemption limits and fixed amounts for preparations have the consequence that in the future the proportion of non-payment drugs from formerly 36.1 percent (2009) from September 2010 to 18.2 percent will decrease, so the statement of the Federal Association of German pharmacists associations (ABDA ).

Statutory insured persons were previously usually exempt from co-payment for medicines, if the corresponding preparations cost less than 30 percent of the statutory health insurance defined maximum amount of a possible reimbursement. If the drug price of a prescription drug is above the copayment exemption limit, the insured must pay 10 per cent of the costs, but a minimum of 5, - Euro and a maximum of 10, - Euro. The additional payments are then forwarded by the pharmacies directly to the statutory health insurance funds.

However, the statutory health insurance companies can also set other types of exemption for their insured after discount agreements with the pharmaceutical manufacturers. So it is possible to reduce the co-payment for certain preparations in half or even delete altogether. The fact that under the new regulations, such a significant reduction in the proportion of unpaid medicines accumulates, therefore also expresses the saving intentions of the statutory insurance, since the exemptions were handled far less generous than before. (Fp)