Last Updated: 2003-06-04 17:04:34 -0400 (Reuters Health)

HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters Health) - German doctors who specialize in "natural" remedies lashed out Wednesday at the government's proposed health reforms, saying the cost-cutting reforms would severely damage Germany's vibrant natural medicine sector and in the long run would end up costing the system more money.

The Central Association of Doctors for Natural Remedies (ZAeN) at a press conference in Hamburg focused its attack on a section of the health reform proposal that would end public health insurance coverage of non-prescription drugs. Most natural medicines are over-the-counter and about 90 percent of all Germans are covered by the public health insurance system.

Dr. Antonius Pollmann, president of the association, told Reuters Health that the result of such a law would either force patients to pay for natural medicines out of pocket or force doctors to write prescriptions for "chemical medicines."

According to Pollmann, natural medicines are usually cheaper than chemical medicines, and in many cases are as effective or more so, but with fewer side effects. For example, he maintained that a natural medicine called cimicifuga can be as effective in treating symptoms of menopause at about one-fourteenth the cost of hormone therapies, which can have side effects.

Pollmann said he believes natural medicines are not being taken seriously by policy makers for one major reason: money. The public health insurance system paid out more than 20 billion euros in 2002 for drugs, with under 1 billion euros of the total going for natural medicines, he said.

"The natural medicine market is not so big," he said. But it is big enough to bother the big drug companies. They would like a piece of it."

The doctors association also criticized the so-called "positive list" law, which would cut in half the number of drugs covered by Germany's public health insurance system and is being vigorously opposed by the pharmaceutical industry. The law is currently being debated in the German Parliament.

Currently, the public health insurance system pays for all medicines sold in pharmacies except for a relatively few on a so-called "negative list." The new law will create a "positive list" of medicines and only drugs on that list will be covered by public health insurers.