The federal government's drug commissioner, Ms. Mechthild Dyckmans (FDP), recently called for nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation to be reimbursed by statutory health insurance in an interview with the "Berliner Zeitung" at the turn of the year 2013. In her justification, she referred not least to a health economic effect: the savings made by the statutory health insurance through reduced treatment costs for ex-smokers who have successfully given up. In Germany, smoking is the most important preventable health risk for a variety of serious diseases and is also the leading cause of premature mortality. According to the federal government's drug report, the economic damage amounts to around 21 billion euros annually. Among the approaches to avoiding illness and thus the costs of illness, in addition to preventing people from starting to smoke, reducing the smoking rate - both medically and economically - is important. One of the most effective aids in quitting smoking is medical support using nicotine replacement therapy (NET). However, the current framework conditions in the context of the GKV system do not currently allow NET to reimburse costs. This should be critically questioned, taking into account all the criteria used in social law and health policy practice to determine whether medicines can be reimbursed by statutory health insurance.

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