The Ombudsman's petition to the Constitutional Court concerning the supply of insulin to diabetic patients

Press release:

The Ombudsman's petition to the Constitutional Court concerning the supply of insulin to diabetic patients

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has asked the Constitutional Court to examine certain provisions of the ministerial decree on social security subsidies for registered pharmaceutical products. According to Máté Szabó Ombudsman the provisions regulating access of diabetic patients to analogous insulin violate their right to health and the prohibition of discrimination; moreover, they are contrary to the Fundamental Law from a formal point of view.

A civil society organisation and several individuals have requested the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights to initiate a constitutional review of the ministerial decree regulating social security subsidies for registered pharmaceutical products. They object to a provision in the decree stipulating that access of patients to the more up-to-date analogous insulin is subsidised by social security for more than one year only if an adequate blood-sugar metabolism is sustainable on the basis of at least two tests. The complaints received by the Ombudsman point out that the underlying purpose of the decree is to induce diabetic patients to lead a healthier life, and to "sanction" patients' who fail to do so.

According to the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights the decree is also contrary to the Fundamental Law from a formal point of view; the Act on Healthcare only authorises the Minister to determine the criteria for deciding whether to subsidise a given pharmaceutical product, and if yes, to what extent it should cover the actual costs; it gives, however, no authorisation to make the treatment of diabetic patients dependent on the results of clinical tests.

In the opinion of the Ombudsman it follows from the right to health that the regulation should ensure the possibility, at least in principle, for everyone to be able to comply with the conditions according to which the subsidised pharmaceutical product can be made use of. It constitutes a violation of fundamental rights if this hypothetical possibility is not ensured for everyone. In his petition the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights also invokes that the decree is of a discriminatory nature: the result of clinical tests as a condition for subsidies is only seemingly neutral; in fact it adversely affects people who cannot chose a healthier life style or in spite of a healthier life style their clinical tests do now show values lower than the level determined in the decree.

Consequently, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has asked the Constitutional Court to establish that those provisions of the decree which make the access to analogous insulin of diabetic patients dependent on conditions are unconstitutional and to annul them.