Filenews 29 January 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
Increases and reductions in the amounts paid by patients to private pharmacies when securing their medicines (contribution II) through the General Health System will take effect from Monday morning.
Increases are expected in a total of 181 medicines and reductions in 126, while the contribution II to 2,173 GHS medicines will not show any change.
The increases and decreases in the contributions of GHS medicines are the result of the revision of the price list of medicines in Cyprus by the Ministry of Health. The review takes place every year and comes into effect in February.
Of the 181 drugs whose contribution II will increase, in 167 the increase will not exceed €3. In six medicines the increase will range from €3 to €5, in five formulations there will be an increase from €5 to €10 and in three cases the contribution will increase by €10 or more.
Citizens can find out whether the medicines they are taking are affected by price changes from the GHS website or from their pharmacist. It is reminded that every citizen has the right to receive with zero contribution the cheapest formulation of each category of medicines. Therefore, the pharmacist can proceed with a relevant replacement or the patient can contact his doctor to obtain his own advice.
https://www.moh.gov.cy/moh/phs/phs.nsf/pricelist_en/pricelist_en
As the director of the Health Insurance Organization, Athos Tsinontidis, told "F", "this is a process that takes place every year and is the result of the update of the price list of medicines by the Ministry of Health. That is, they are not increases or decreases decided by the HIO but are made automatically and are proportional to the variations resulting from the revision of the price list".
In any case, he said, "beneficiaries can be informed about this and if they wish to change a formulation, if it has increased, they can in consultation with their doctor secure the cheapest medicine or they can trust their pharmacist who by law has the right to replace with the cheapest, per category medicine."
Regarding the prices of medicines in Cyprus (excluding GHS), the update of the price list showed an increase to 488 medicines and a decrease to 1,827, while in 930 medicines prices remained stable.
Out of a total of 6,081 medicines included in the price list, the prices of 2,836 formulations were not updated since they either belong to the category of cheap medicines, i.e. they are sold at prices below €10 or they are non-prescription drugs whose prices are determined by the market and not by the Ministry of Health.
