KELA, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, recently asked a Helsinki pharmacy for an explanation as to why one of the customers had been purchasing a one-month supply of erectile dysfunction medicine every two days.

KELA health insurance covers potency pills only in cases where impotence or weakened erectile function is caused by a spinal injury or, for example, the removal of the prostate gland due to cancer.

Last year just fewer than 1,500 men received KELA-covered potency pills.

A co-operation agreement between KELA and pharmacies states that the pharmacies are responsible for monitoring how much remunerable medicine customers buy.

Customers can purchase up to a three-month supply of KELA-covered medicine at any one time. The pharmacies are also liable to supervise that a new instalment will not be sold until the client has nearly used up the previous amount.

The measure of the erectile dysfunction medicine covered by KELA has been set to six doses per month. Naturally clients can exceed this amount, as long as they have a doctor's prescription for the medicine and they are willing to pay for it.

Neither KELA nor pharmacies feel there is a need to try to regulate at which rate clients use the medicine, as long as no more than six pills per month are covered by KELA insurance.

The fact that the medicine is sold in packs of four, eight, and twelve pills slightly complicates compensation calculations. The pharmacies have, therefore, agreed to allow clients to purchase a combination of 12 and 8 pill packs against a three-month KELA coverage.