[Equal access to medical services over the lifespan]

Demand for health services is in principle unlimited, in contrast to resources. People covered by public health funds in principle have equal access to treatment according to the highest level of medical evidence available. In order to restrict expenditure the legislator stipulates different instruments. These include reference pricing for generics as well as price capping. The legislator still shies from price fixing which is well established in other states. Instead, office-based physicians are confronted by law with rationing decisions concerning their own services as well as services prescribed where the mentally ill are at special risk of becoming victims of intransparency, as exemplified by the heterogeneity of the prescription of psychotropic drugs. A systematic prioritization approach following internationally available models might open new perspectives.