“Weight loss injections” covered by health insurance? The legal situation in Austria

Although overweight is on the rise across all age groups in Austria, “mere” overweight is generally not recognized as a disease under social insurance law (although the definitions of disease are not entirely identical in social insurance law and medicine). Therefore, there is no legal basis for social insurance to cover the costs of “weight loss injections.” The situation is different for obesity: here, a qualification as a disease under both medical and social insurance law is indeed likely, but this does not mean that “weight loss injections” can be prescribed without restriction at the expense of social insurance. This is only possible in certain cases, with Austria’s complex drug reimbursement law playing a central role.

Our Associate in the field of Life Sciences & Health Law, Gisela Ernst, and Prof. Dr. Karl Stöger, MJur (Oxon) from the University of Vienna, present this “multi-layered” legal situation in a blog post on Gesundheitsrecht.blog.