After the article about going to the doctor in Germany, we will certainly be interested in a quite related topic.

How does buying medicine work in Germany?

Please join My Career to learn about this topic.

DRUG CLASSIFICATION

Talking about the concept of medicine, we can divide it into many types, in general it can be divided into 3 categories:

Supplements, functional foods

Supplements and functional foods are vitamin and mineral supplements (vitamin C effervescent tablets, zinc effervescent tablets, multivitamin effervescent tablets), herbal supplements (similar to herballife, nuskin), nutritional extracts (omega fish oil tablets, green vegetable extract tablets, gac extract tablets, ginkgo biloba), cosmetics for skin care, oral care, body care

This group also includes complementary health products that do not have many significant side effects such as test strips (covid test, pregnancy test), medical bandages, wound patches, toothpastes for dental diseases, essential oils, and three wolves.

Non-prescription drugs

As the name suggests, this is a group of drugs that do not require a doctor’s prescription. Therefore, this is a drug that treats common, mild illnesses with few or no side effects.

Can we mention common medicines that treat mild illnesses and have few side effects such as cough medicine, medicine for acute diarrhea, tonics (not functional foods), red medicine, birth control pills?

Special medicine

These are antibiotics, drugs for treating serious illnesses, drugs with many side effects, special drugs, painkillers with addictive elements, they are strictly managed in Germany.

To be able to buy them, we must have a doctor’s prescription. This is a drug that affects many side effects, without a diagnosis from a specialist, it will not be possible to ensure the safety of the patient.

If something unexpected happens to the patient after purchasing the medicine, the doctor who prescribed the medicine must take responsibility, the pharmacy is not responsible at all (if it can provide the prescription that the doctor prescribed for the patient).

But if the pharmacy arbitrarily sells special medicine to the buyer without a prescription from a doctor, when the patient unfortunately has an accident, the pharmacy must take full responsibility.

WHERE TO BUY MEDICINE? AND HOW?

Familiar names: dm, Rossmann, Müller, Schlecker

Based on the drug classification in the above section, we can guess that the group of supplements and functional foods can be easily purchased, not only at pharmacies (Apotheke) but also at supermarkets or convenience stores.

In Germany, there are famous convenience store and supermarket chains that sell a variety of cheap health supplements, such as DM, Rossmann, Müller, and Schlecker.

These retail brands are even famous in Vietnam, because they are the main sources of German functional foods and cosmetics for international students and flight attendants to buy and send back to Vietnam to sell or give away as gifts.

Yes, in fact, it is a large German retail brand of sundries, especially strong in the field of selling functional foods, vitamins, and skin care cosmetics, with a chain of mini supermarkets widely distributed throughout Germany. Moreover, here they sell products at very, very cheap prices.

Small note: In these systems they only sell things that do not require a doctor’s prescription and do not accept payment by health insurance card.

Pharmacy

For the second group, non-prescription drugs, and the third group, special drugs, we have to go to pharmacies (Apotheke) to buy them.

The distinguishing feature between non-prescription drugs and specialty drugs lies in whether we are required to present a doctor’s prescription when purchasing these two types of drugs – and pharmacies need the prescription not only to see it, but they may also need to make a copy of it as a basis for disclaiming liability.

For bills for medical treatment with full documentation, payment for medication can also be made through the health insurance card (similar to when going to the doctor).

If we buy state health insurance packages, the payment of the cost of buying medicine is pushed directly to the insurance to pay, we do not have to pay directly. All we need to do is show our health insurance card and let the pharmacist do the rest.

If we buy private health insurance packages, we may have to pay in advance, get the bill, then send a copy of the bill and prescription to the insurance company so they can carry out the reimbursement procedure according to the contract.

Don’t worry, international students, we are eligible to buy state health insurance.

NOTES WHEN BUYING MEDICINE IN GERMANY

Note 1: Not all medications are covered by insurance.

When buying medicine at the pharmacy, there are some cases where we cannot request payment by health insurance card as follows:

Buy supplements, functional foods

Like buying vitamin C effervescent tablets at dm, Rossmann, we have to pay for this medicine ourselves, insurance will not cover it.

Buy non-prescription medications

Without a medical record, without a prescription, without a prescription from a doctor, we can still buy some mild drugs in the second group mentioned above, but the insurance will not accept payment for them, simply because we are buying drugs without a doctor’s prescription, no one is responsible for what we buy and no one guarantees that we buy them to treat the disease according to the terms of the insurance contract.

Some special medications as required by prescription

Not all prescription drugs are covered 100% by insurance, although they still require a doctor’s order (with a prescription).

The specifics are complicated, but we can ask (or the doctor will also guide when prescribing) which drugs can be covered by insurance and which ones cannot.

Usually pain relievers are not in this group, complementary medicines may not be in this group either, or some specific medicines.

Simple example: Viagra.

Note 2: The pharmacy is not open 24/7

Pharmacies, like private clinics (Praxis), are not open 24/7. They have opening and closing hours posted on the door or on a sign, usually during weekday business hours, closed on Sundays. Some places are not even open on Friday afternoons. So even when buying medicine, we need to plan, not just buy it whenever we want.

Note 3: Be careful when buying medicine online

If you buy medicine online at reputable drug stores, it’s the same as buying medicine at a pharmacy, there’s no difference.

The medicine will be shipped by post. We still need to provide a prescription if buying special medicine that requires a prescription.

Recently, there have been a number of websites selling prescription drugs without requiring a prescription. The German press has published many articles condemning and warning people not to buy these drugs on their own, because they can lose money and suffer from health problems, and no one will be responsible if anything bad happens.

Health belongs to everyone, everyone must cherish and be responsible for their own health!

The above sharing from My Career is hopefully useful to you, making it easier for you to buy medicine in Germany.