reimbursement is the most under-discussed thing on this board
reimbursement is the most under-discussed thing on this board, which sounds obvious until you try to state the evidence for it.
Kept the prescription and the receipt for a claim, purely because a thread here told me to. Both were requested.
The structure that makes this board make sense, once.
Marketing authorisation for these products is granted centrally, which is why the same product exists across the union. Everything after that — whether it is reimbursed, on what criteria, at what price, in what pack size, dispensed under what margin rules — is decided nationally.
So "is it covered" has twenty-seven answers, "what does it cost" has twenty-seven answers plus within-country variation, and only "is it authorised" has one. Almost every argument on this board is two people answering different questions from different countries, both correctly.
Asked in my own language at a local pharmacy and got a clearer answer in five minutes than a fortnight of forum reading.
Screenshot none of this. Read the whole thread, including the parts where I am told I am wrong.
best — the order this archive was captured in
How to compare prices across borders without misleading yourself.
Normalise the pack size first. Presentations differ between member states and a headline figure for one pack is not comparable to another. Then separate reimbursed from private prices, which are set by entirely different mechanisms. Then note the dispensing fee structure, which is nationally regulated.
When members here have done all three, the interesting finding has consistently been that variation between pharmacies within a country is often as large as the variation between countries — which makes the cross-border shopping most of these threads are really about far less attractive than it looks.
ask for the Beipackzettel or the local equivalent, it answers most questions
A supply notice in one member state made the front page here and had no effect at all where I am.
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the reimbursement criteria are published in most member states
Pack sizes and presentations differ between member states, so a headline price is not comparable until it is normalised to a common quantity.
the language barrier is a real cost and nobody budgets for it
pack sizes differ, so per-month comparisons need care
pharmacy margins are regulated differently in each country
Small fix — those two prices are for different pack sizes, which accounts for most of the gap.
Not convinced — cross-border prescription recognition is narrower than you are describing and the exceptions matter.
pharmacy margins are regulated differently in each country
Agreed — and normalising pack size before comparing prices is the fix for half these threads.
private pricing varies enormously between neighbouring countries