PRESCRIPTION PRICES INCREASING IN JANUARY

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The Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality has agreed to raise the maximum monthly limits of pharmaceutical copayment by pensioners, currently set at 8.14 euro, 18.32 euro or 61.08 euro, depending on income, and increased the maximum amount corresponding to individual drugs, currently 4.20 euro per pack.

The increase will take effect automatically in January, and is said to fall in line with the consumer price index, as announced by the minister for health, Ana Mato, who said that the increase will be approximately 1.4%, adapting the ceiling figures to 8.26 euro, 18.59 euro and 62 euro compared to the previous three rates.

Therefore, from January, pensioners who have an annual income of below 18,000 euro will pay a maximum of 8.26 euro per month, an increase of 12 cents. Those who have an income of between 18,000 and 100,000 euro will now pay 18.59 euro, 27 cents per month more. Those pensioners who receive more than 100,000 euro per year will now be expected to pay an additional 92 cents per month, with their ceiling set at 62 euro per month.

A number of other drugs provided for chronic or seriously ill patients, which currently have a maximum of 4.20 euro each, will increase to 4.26.

Although the increase may seem insignificant, it is also considered to be yet another burden of indirect taxation, particularly levied on those with less means to pay, which will be added to the increase in electricity and other utilities, food and transport.

The news also comes just 3 days after the ministry announced that the government has saved over two and a half billion euro in the 17 months since copayment began. In November alone, the latest month for which data is available, the cost to the government for pharmaceuticals was just over 758 million euro, representing a drop of nearly 11% on 2011´s figures, but the figure not only takes into account that the public are paying more directly for medication, rather than through taxation, it also takes into account that 7.7 million prescriptions were issued in the month, a drop of nearly 10%.

However, although the savings may seem significant nationally, in the Valencia region, the difference is hardly noticeable, with 92.727.761 euro spent in November of this year, compared to 93.062.849 of 2011, a reduction of just 0.36%, making hardly any saving at all, even whilst copayment exists.

Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/42076/

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