Patients’ direct access to medicines
Patients’ direct access to medicines
SFEE works conscientiously to promote the acceptance and the adoption of prerequisites that safeguard the direct access of the insured to all branded medicines and therapies.
The State’s consistency in adhering to its commitment to implement European community legislation, through the issuance of price bulletins every 90 days and the approval of rational price increases for well established, inexpensive and effective medicines, contributes decisively to patients’ direct access to new medicines. With such a policy, new and innovative medicines become available without delay from Greek pharmacies and hospitals and, concurrently, old and well-established medicines are not withdrawn from the market and are not replaced by newer and more expensive medicines. The strict and consistent implementation of this policy is the most appropriate method to guarantee that the insured have direct access to medicines.
In parallel, SFEE, with well documented data, has demonstrated that the list of reimbursed medicines represents a tool of the past, one that generated immense bureaucratic procedures and major delays in patients’ access to new medicines, thereby increasing, rather than decreasing, pharmaceutical expenditure.
We consistently point out that the prices of medicines are set by the State - based on the 2+1 system – and that all medicines in Greece are among the least expensive in the 27 member States of the EU. Despite this, coupled with international inflationary trends, SFEE has positively responded, in collaboration with the Ministry of Development, to the State’s plea for the containment of prices and has agreed to the freezing of the prices for one year, beginning from May 2008. This decision stems from the social responsibility that characterizes SFEE.
At the same time, however, SFEE is characterized by a particular sensitivity related to the promotion of accurate data concerning the size of the pharmaceutical market. It is especially satisfying that, for the first time, with the contribution of SFEE, the State (Ministerial Decision on the rebate of medicinal products Φ.42000/14734/532, Official Government Gazette 1460Β’/24/7/08) officially recognized that the pharmaceutical expenditure amounted to €3,218,312,7.71 in 2006 and €3,831,824,232.45 in 2007.This expenditure represents the amounts paid by insurance funds, at retail prices, including VAT, minus the co-payment incurred by the insured. These amounts constitute the exact public pharmaceutical expenditure in Greece and account for one-half of total “pharmaceutical sales”, thus corroborating SFEE’s calcualations
See the other sections of our Vision:
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Ensuring the highest quality of medicines |
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Streamlining the IT infrastructure of social insurance funds and hospitals |
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The flawless operation of the distribution network |
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Code of Practice |
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