The article describes the controversy about the question whether statutory 
social health insurances are obliged to reimburse the costs for the treatment of 
erectile dysfunction. Next to the question whether the 'Bundesausschuss der 
Arzte und Krankenkassen' was entitled to decide it was highly controversial 
whether erectile dysfunction is a disease according to the laws of social 
insurance. This enforces more general considerations regarding the possibility 
to define disease and the relevancy of a concept of disease for the 
justification and limitation of socially financed services in medicine.