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German pediatricians warn over children’s medicine shortages

Germany is facing a shortage of children's medicines, leading pediatricians to sound the alarm and call for greater procurement.

Published: 2 May 2023 15:58 CEST

German pediatricians warn over children’s medicine shortages

Children's fever syrups are running particularly short in Europe right now. Photo: Victoria Model / Pixabay

The Association of Youth Medicine (DGKJ), which represents German pediatricians, says they’re running desperately short of penicillin – a common antibiotic – as well as both pain and fever medications that come in small doses designed for children.

The issue is currently affecting several other European countries: In an open letter published over the weekend, pediatricians from Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland appealed to their respective health ministries for action on a shortage of children’s medicines.

The doctors stressed it was “urgent to find a fast, reliable and lasting solution” to the problems facing stocks in Europe.

“The health of our children and our youngsters is in danger because of the lack of medicines throughout Europe,” they wrote.

READ ALSO: European pediatricians sound alarm over medicine shortage

Which medicines are facing the greatest shortages?

Pharmacies and clinics are currently running short of a wide range of medicines. While fever, pain, and penicillin are the most severe, there are also shortages of cough medicine and anti-depressants, among others.

Sixty-eight percent of the currently active production sites for the medicines concerned are in Asia, prompting German doctors to make calls for more critical parts of the supply chain to be brought back to Europe – particularly since China’s Zero Covid policy started created shipping bottlenecks earlier this year.

The amount that German health insurances reimburse for certain pain medication – like Paracetamol – has also remained the same even as production costs have soared, putting further pressure on manufacturers.

To help deal with the shortage, German pediatricians are calling for a mass procurement of key medicines, where European countries would band together to buy big common orders – something not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic with vaccines.

READ ALSO: Germany to pay more for children’s medication as shortages spike

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How much more residents in Germany might have to pay for health insurance

Health insurance organisations are warning that costs will be hiked up again soon due to concerns over funding.

Doris Pfeiffer, CEO of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband), told Germany’s Tagesschau that insurance funds are expecting a billion-euro deficit.

She said it was a tough year “because we don’t have particularly good prospects”.

For people paying statutory health insurance, things could become more expensive next year. Around 90 percent of people in Germany are covered by statutory health insurance.

The contribution rate is fixed by law and stands at 14.6 percent. The additional contribution that the health insurance funds set for their members was raised to 1.7 at the start of this year.

The latest increase gave statutory insurance funds the ability to charge up to 1.7 percent on top of the standard 14.6 precent contrinution, though not all insurance funds chose to do so.

The costs are split between the employer and employee, so workers in Germany would pay half of any increase.

READ ALSO: Reader question: How can I change my German health insurance provider?

How much could additional costs rise next year?

Due to the funding issues, health insurers expect an increase of up to 0.6 percentage points to the additional contribution threshold. What this would mean for the insured depends on a few variables such as their income and their insurer.

Someone earning €2,000 gross per month, for example, would have to pay €6 extra per month if their insurer opted to increase additional contributions by this amount. Meanwhile, a gross income of €4,000 would mean €12 extra per month. The employer’s share would be added to this.

health insurance cards

Many health insurance cards in Germany double as a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), meaning that they can be used across Europe. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jens Kalaene

“That may not sound like much at first glance,” said Pfeiffer. “But there are people who earn very little for whom this is a lot – supermarket cashiers, lorry drivers.”

It comes following a rise in fees at the start of the year. From the start of 2024, additional contributions for statutory health insurance rose by around 0.1 percent in Germany.

Why are costs increasing?

The German healthcare system is one of the most expensive in the world.

As German society ages more, costs continue to rise – and the Covid pandemic didn’t help matters. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds estimates that this year alone it will cost around €314 billion to provide care for everyone who is insured.

The money is mainly spent on hospitalisation costs and medical treatment.

READ ALSO: Why long-term care insurance fees are likely to rise in Germany next year

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has so far not presented any concrete proposals on how he intends to relieve the burden on health insurance funds in future.

Instead, the system is likely to face further expenditure. Lauterbach’s hospital reform is expected to drive up costs, while proposals to pay GPs more in order to combat the shortage of doctors would also push up expenses.

READ ALSO: German ministers greenlight plan to improve healthcare at GPs

Pfeiffer called for a plan to tackle the rising costs.

“We now finally need an approach that puts this healthcare system on a new footing,” she said.

In the coalition government’s initial agreement back in 2021, the parties vowed to support health insurance funds with more tax revenue.

But as difficult budget negotiations take place, it doesn’t look like this will happen.

This is causing friction among the coalition made up of the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP).

Green budget politician Paula Piechotta, for instance, is unhappy about this.

The opposition CDU/CSU also taken the opportunity to swipe at the government.

“This is not acceptable,” said CDU health politician Sepp Müller. “The tense situation in the social security system cannot continue to be ignored.”

However, it should be noted that there was no plan to help provide more money to statutory health insurance under the previous Health Ministry headed by the CDU’s Jens Spahn.

When the SPD’s Lauterbach took over in 2021, there was already a funding gap of billions of euros.

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