Vienna (OTS) – In Austria, patients are paying increasingly more for their medication, even though drug prices are continually falling. If the price charged to the health insurance is below the prescription fee of currently 7.10 euros, no billing will be made and the costs will not be taken into account for the “prescription fee account”, even though the prescription fee has been paid. This already affects almost half of all medications dispensed in public pharmacies. “It’s a paradox: patients have an additional financial burden despite the savings achieved through cheaper generics“, says Wolfgang Andiel, President of the Austrian Generics Association (OeGV).
While the prescription fee is increased every year, the prices for medicines are continually falling. The costs for patients are constantly rising – this particularly affects chronically ill or elderly people who regularly need medication. As Ombudsman Bernhard Achitz rightly criticizes in the ORF program “Citizens’ Advocate”, this undermines the upper limit on prescription fees because these medications are not taken into account in the “prescription fee account”. As a result, patients receive the automatic exemption from prescription fees much later or not at all.
The price band, which came into force in October last year, further exacerbates the situation by further reducing generic drug prices, causing even more drugs to fall below the prescription fee threshold. “Since October last year, the price band has ensured that the maximum price of a reimbursed drug can be a maximum of 20 percent higher than that of the cheapest drug with the same active ingredient. Higher doses may not cost more than lower doses if the latter are prescribed more frequently. This means that even more medications fall below the reimbursement limit and have to be paid for by patients themselves“, criticizes Andiel.
The Generics Association supports the Ombudsman’s idea of introducing an upper limit on medication costs that actually covers all prescribed medications. “On the one hand, this would relieve the financial burden on patients and, on the other hand, it would give health insurance companies the opportunity to fully record the actual medication costs. So far, only medication costs that are also reimbursed have been taken into account. This picture is incomplete and does not reflect reality“, says Andiel. The requirements for this have recently been in place: since January 1, 2024, the data on the medications included in the prescription fee must also be transmitted to the health insurance company for the purpose of health services research.
Generic drugs are crucial for security of supply. Thanks to generics, treatment costs are reduced by at least 65 percent. More than 90 percent of the medication packages sold come from the off-patent segment, of which 57 percent are generics. In the last 12 months, around 100 million packs of generics were dispensed in Austrian pharmacies.
In recent years, the situation for the generic drug industry has become significantly worse due to forced massive price reductions. Around a quarter of generic medicines have disappeared from the European market within 10 years due to high price pressure. Including antibiotics and cancer drugs. Increasing the proportion of prescriptions for generics would achieve the same savings for the health insurance companies as through the forced price reductions, but in return would keep significantly more drugs in the supply. With the medication cost cap, the savings achieved would finally be passed on to the insured.
The Austrian Generics Association
We are the Austrian Generics Association, an association of 11 generics producers who are committed to providing Austrian patients with optimal care with high-quality, inexpensive medicines. The goal of our association is, on the one hand, to inform the public about the advantages of generics and, on the other hand, to help shape current health policy debates. Our members are GL Pharma GmbH, Genericon Pharma Gesellschaft mbH, Bluefish Pharma, Aristo Pharma Österreich GmbH, interpharm ProduktionsgmbH, ratiopharm Arzneimittel VertriebsGmbH, Dermapharm GmbH, S.MED GmbH, Stada GmbH and Sandoz GmbH.
Questions & Contact:
For the generics association Ute Stocker ute.stocker@gaisberg.eu +43664 88446426
