Germany and Luxembourg uphold the status quo of homeopathic medicines

The German health minister, Jens Spahn, has announced that homeopathic medicinal products will continue to be reimbursed by health insurance companies. In so doing, he puts an end to the debate that has been going on in Germany for months.

The minister explained that the strength of the debate was out of proportion with the facts - the cost of such products (20 million euros) is insignificant in relation to the overall cost of medicines in Germany as a whole (40 billion euros). He explained his decision as a choice between an emotional discussion that risked upsetting many people or, given the order of magnitude, accepting the status quo and avoiding all the fuss. His decision is to leave things as they are.

Homeopathic medicines are not included in the catalogue of funded medicines in Germany. However, 70% of statutory health insurance companies respond to the choice of their patients by offering the additional option to reimburse treatment costs for certain complementary medicine therapies, including homeopathic medicines.

In taking this decision, Germany is joined by Luxembourg, whose health minister, Étienne Schneider and his colleague, the minister for social security, Romain Schneider, recently confirmed that Luxembourg has “no intention of taking the measures taken by the French authorities in this area", that is to move towards dereimbursement.

ECHAMP welcomes these decisions by both German and Luxembourger health ministers.