Austrian Industry Criticises New Reimbursement System

Austrian pharmaceuticals industry group Pharmig has criticised the government's plans to reform the country's reimbursement system. Under the new framework, all reimbursable drugs are to be re-categorised, with some 2,500 products to be reimbursed by health funds only in exceptional circumstances.

Pharmig's complaints centre on the possibility that the new system could endanger patients' treatment programmes, as some may be obliged to pay for drugs which were previously received free of charge. However, the Austrian health ministry has rebutted the claims, pledging that patients beginning their treatments before the end of December 2004 will remain entitled to free medicines. Meanwhile, social health funds also claim that treatments such as immune therapies will remain prescribed on an individual basis, and will thus escape the new charging structure.

In common with many European countries, Austria is currently attempting to restrain its drug bill, and measures to reform generous social provision are likely to encounter strong popular resistance.