The Future of State-Funded Homeopathy in Europe

For decades, European health systems have maintained an uneasy coexistence between evidence-based medicine and a range of so-called alternative medicines (SCAMs). Among the most prominent has been homeopathy. That evidence free ride seems now coming to an end. Driven to some degree by budget pressure and by a much larger extend by a stronger emphasis on clinical evidence, many governments have reduced or ended public reimbursement for homeopathy, prompting an important question: which European countries will follow next?

The early movers: the UK and France

As we have discussed ad nauseam on this blog, the UK was among the first major European systems to move away from public funding of homeopathy. In 2017, NHS England recommended that general practitioners stop prescribing homeopathic remedies because of the lack of evidence for clinical effectiveness, and NHS guidance now states that the NHS no longer funds homeopathy. France followed a similar path. After a review by the French National Authority for Health (HAS), the government gradually reduced reimbursement from 30 percent to 15 percent in 2020 and then to zero in 2021.

Germany’s contested turn

As I frequently reported, Germany, the country of Samuel Hahnemann’s birth, became the next major and somewhat convoluted battleground. In 2022, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach publicly argued that homeopathy had no place in a science-based statutory health insurance system, and in 2024 there was a serious political push to end coverage. But the story did not end there: by 2025, that effort had been reversed, and homeopathy and anthroposophic medicine remained covered under statutory health insurance. The most recent turn in this saga is that the days of reimbursement of homeopathy in Germany are counted.

Spain

Spain has taken a particularly forceful stance against SCAM. Its Ministry of Health has pursued a plan aimed at restricting misleading promotion, excluding SCAM from health centres and universities, and improving consumer warnings; however, Spain has not simply “banned” homeopathy, and the products remain available under regulatory controls.

Belgium

Belgium is also restrictive: homeopathy may be practised only by doctors, dentists, and midwives, and the Belgian health-technology authorities advised against compulsory insurance reimbursement.

Switzerland

Switzerland is the clearest exception to the broader European trend. Following the 2009 referendum, several forms of were incorporated into basic insurance, and homeopathy has been covered under mandatory health insurance for services provided by qualified physicians. Recently, it was decided to halt the renewed evaluation of homeopathy.

Italy

Italy is different again: homeopathic products are regulated as medicines, but they are not normally funded through the national health service, so public reimbursement has never been central to their use.

Other countries

In much of Scandinavia and in many central and eastern European states, public reimbursement of homeopathy is generally absent or minimal, even when homeopathy is legally permitted. The Baltic states and several Balkan countries are typically more restrictive in practice, with homeopathy either outside the public system or allowed only under limited professional regulation. Slovenia and Croatia are notable for tighter professional restrictions, with homeopathy not generally open to medical doctors in the way it is in some western European systems.

The future

Across much of Europe, the trend clearly is towards tighter regulation of homeopathy, reduced reimbursement, and greater insistence on sound evidence of benefit. Thus homeopathy is increasingly being pushed out of the public sphere and into private purchase or supplementary insurance. In other words, European public healthcare systems are increasingly treating homeopathy in one of the following ways:

• obsolete because of lack of evidence,
• low-priority,
• non-essential expense.

PS

An interesting ‘aside’ is the fact that the “European Committee for Homeopathy” ignores much of the evidence by falsely stating the following:

“In some areas of the United Kingdom homeopathic treatment by doctors is covered by the National Health System. In Belgium and Latvia the fees for homeopathic treatment are partially covered by the statutory health insurance. In Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom by private insurance companies. The costs for homeopathic medicines are covered by the statutory health insurance in Belgium (partially), France (partially), Portugal (only magistral formula) and Switzerland, by additional private insurance companies in Belgium, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.”

PPS

In case you happen to be in Vienna during the next week, please come to my lecture:

Gesellschaft der Ärzte, Wien, 13.5.2026, 19:00 – 19:45 Uhr, „Sogenannte Alternativmedizin – Nutzen und Risiken am Beispiel Homöopathie“