The contributions of specific GHS medicines remain high, as the consultation between the Health Insurance Organization and pharmaceutical companies has not resulted in any agreement.
The effort made by the Minister of Health at the end of last month did not pay off, as on the part of the pharmaceutical companies, mainly, additional issues are being discussed, which the HIO rejects at this stage, and all this delay forces thousands of patients, most of them elderly, to dig deep into their pockets for another month, in order to secure the anticoagulant treatment they need.
The problem concerns specific categories of drugs which include preparations that, although intended for the same condition, have a different substance and are not all suitable for all patients.
When the patent of a preparation (of the category) expires and its generics are included in the GHS, the contributions of the other drugs are affected, despite the fact that their own patent is still valid.
In such a case, as it emerged from the revision of the list of medicines last February, the contribution of an anticoagulant drug received by around 10,000 patients has exceeded €20.
After a strong protest on the part of the Federation of Cyprus Patients' Associations and a number of complaints from patients receiving the specific drugs, a meeting was held at the HIO in the presence of organized patients and pharmaceutical companies.
On the basis of this meeting, the HIO prepared a financial proposal which it put before the companies that, as it is found, responded negatively, putting on the table additional issues, which do not concern the specific problem itself.
As we are informed, the HIO recommended setting a ceiling on the contributions of beneficiaries/patients, so that they do not exceed €8 and absorbing the costs resulting from the comparison of prices between the drugs of the category by the Organization and the pharmaceutical companies.
When the issue was transferred to the meeting under the Minister of Health, the two sides simply reiterated, as we are informed, each their own positions without any agreement being reached, again, with Neophytos Charalambidis giving HIO and companies one month to continue the dialogue between them. (The meeting under the Minister took place on April 29).
Until yesterday afternoon, no new meeting had taken place, with the HIO preparing to invite the pharmaceutical companies to a dialogue again in the coming days.
"We understand that each side will see its own interest," the president of OSAK, Charalambos Papadopoulos, told "F", however, he said, "first and foremost the interest of the patients must come into play and in this case the patients are the ones who are asked to pay large contributions and even when, in fact, their medicine has not shown any change, neither in the price, nor in its availability".
"This is not something we can accept. The delay is already affecting thousands of patients."
