Private health insurance against distortion in drug prices
03.09.2010 15:43
Director of the Association of Private Health Insurance Companies (PKV), Volker Leienbach, on the current discussion about the planned law on the pharmaceutical market (AMNOG).
„"It is objectively unjustifiable that patients in Germany should pay different prices for the same medication from the same pharmacy simply because they have different insurance coverage. Such a distortion has nothing to do with a social market economy.".
Therefore, the criticism leveled today by the German Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry is unfounded. Furthermore, it is incompatible with the interests of the common good.
The equivalent transfer of drug rebates to privately insured individuals is constitutionally sound. According to the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court of February 13, 2008, health insurance is considered a basic necessity, both statutory and private. This includes the requirement that insurance premiums remain affordable. This aligns with the public interest, which, according to the established jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, fully justifies statutory regulation of drug rebates, especially since they do not impose a disproportionate burden on pharmaceutical companies.
The plans of the CDU/CSU and FDP coalition to extend the general drug discounts to privately insured individuals are therefore logical and appropriate. There are also no technical or practical obstacles to this regulation. It is also necessary to prevent the pharmaceutical industry from offsetting the price reductions in statutory health insurance through price increases solely at the expense of privately insured individuals.
It is, moreover, a deliberate misinterpretation to describe this demand, which is already justified in terms of patient protection, as "alignment with statutory health insurance." The competition between private and statutory health insurance systems thrives on differences that policyholders can observe every day. Private health insurance is and remains a budget-free zone; it guarantees free choice of doctor and therapy, provides a lifelong benefit commitment, and, thanks to its capital funding, is fair to future generations. This, and much more, makes the difference. Price differences for identical medications depending on the insurance system, on the other hand, are not a characteristic of systemic competition, but rather would distort it.
Furthermore, private health insurers continue to press for an effective legal framework for negotiation that finally enables genuine negotiations between private health insurers and all healthcare providers regarding quality, volume, and prices. This freedom of negotiation must no longer be denied to private health insurers.“