CONTRIBUTIONS TO GESY MEDICINES ARE 'BURNING' - DEADLOCK IN NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN HIO AND PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES - Filenews 28/3 by Marilena Panayi
Patients have been brought to their knees by the high contributions to specific categories of medicines and as everything shows, citizens will pay dearly for the execution of their prescriptions in the pharmacies of the General Health System, in the best case scenario next month.
This is because, as we are informed, the proposal of the Health Insurance Organization to set a ceiling on the amount of the contribution of the beneficiaries of the GHS, does not seem to be accepted by the pharmaceutical companies and the meeting convened by the Minister of Health, although originally scheduled for Holy Week, was then postponed to the end of April.
It is recalled that the problem arose after changes in the GHS drug lists, due to the expiration of patents (patents) on some original preparations and the simultaneous reduction in the price of some of them, resulting in the contribution paid by patients exceeding €20.
In these cases, the practice of changing a drug and exchanging the prescription for the cheapest of the category for which no contribution is paid, cannot be easily applied as these are drugs with a different active substance and there is a high possibility of deregulation of patients and worsening of the health problem they face.
The anger of patients who have already made high contributions in the past two months is also reflected in the relevant complaints received by the patient observatory, with the Federation of Patients' Associations stressing that "it is not possible to call on citizens to change the active substance they need and potentially be put at risk without immediately taking the necessary measures to support them".
It is reported that OSAK had proposed to HIO and pharmaceutical companies, during a meeting, to set a ceiling (below €10) on the contributions of medicines in these categories.
The Organization, according to information from "F", largely adopted the proposals of the Patients' Federation and submitted a relevant proposal to the pharmaceutical companies which, however, seem to reject and raise the issue of a comprehensive revision of the drug dispensing system (with all that this implies for the citizens' pockets or for the GHS fund).
From €4.50 to €22 in one night - Complaints recorded by the Patient Observatory are indicative of the situation
> A patient contacted OSAK stating that he is receiving anticoagulant treatment due to a health problem. Until recently, he was supplied with the medicine from a private pharmacy for a fee of €4.50, while he is now required to pay a co-payment of €22 per month. He expresses strong dissatisfaction with the increased financial burden that chronic patients have to bear, as well as with the fact that the proposed alternative medication includes another pharmaceutical substance, which can cause deregulation and put them at risk.
> Another patient reported that until recently he was supplied with his medicine from a private pharmacy with a payment of €1, while he is now required to pay a co-payment of €22. He expresses his dissatisfaction with the fact that chronic patients are burdened with increased co-payment and that the alternative offered to them is to take a drug with another active substance. As he mentioned, they keep their health stable, they are reluctant to change treatment, as they do not want to risk a deterioration in their health condition.
> A third patient complained about the significant, as he mentioned, increase in the co-payment for specific drugs he receives. For one medicinal product, the contribution increased from €8.42 to €15.33, while its anticoagulant treatment increased from €2.10 to €29.34. The patient expressed strong dissatisfaction with the great financial burden that arises, stressing that these increases make the cost of his medication unbearable.
> A fourth patient reported that he is receiving anticoagulant treatment, and with the new co-payment, he pays €10 per package, resulting in a monthly cost of €30 since he needs three packages for the needs of a month. On the contrary, it points out that a corresponding anticoagulant treatment of a different dosage is available in a package of 28 tablets with the same co-payment of €10, which, in its view, creates an unjustified disparity in costs between the two.
"We are committing crimes against thousands of patients"
"It is unthinkable to talk about people's health and not take measures without delay," Miltos Miltiadous, Secretary of OSAK, told "F".
The problem, he said, "is very specific and concerns individual categories of medicines and certainly not the large volume of medicines of the GHS".
"At the moment we have trapped thousands of patients and it is criminal to put them in the dilemma of changing the medication they receive due to cost. We are putting them at risk."
As OSAK, "we have made it clear that patients should not be put in the dilemma of changing treatment for financial reasons and we do not accept contributions that exceed a few euros. To its credit, the HIO seems to have largely adopted our proposals, without of course us being able to know the details of its own proposal to the pharmaceutical companies. We have been informed, however, that the pharmaceutical companies have not proceeded with a counter-proposal but have set other conditions."
"We expected a meeting under the Minister to take place without delay and this was set for April 29. You realize that for the groups of people who use these drugs, and we are mainly referring to low-income pensioners, €20 for another month is a very significant amount. Even if an agreement is reached at the end of April, it will not be just once again, because some recipes will have to be re-executed by then."
The Federation, he concluded, "will not accept that patients are at risk or that patients continue to pay amounts that their pockets cannot bear".
