The Cabinet introduces a new system for the issuance of free drugs
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Now in Ukraine, patients with chronic diseases (asthma, hypertension, etc.) receive a prescription for obtaining the necessary medicines in the pharmacy (for free or at a discount). The Cabinet of Ministers intends to change this system from next year and launch a reimbursement program. Naturally, there are some risks to the new system for obtaining medicines, first of all, corruption, when one drug will be paid twice. It can also affect the quality - doctors can prescribe Ukrainian analogues instead of foreign drugs in order to save money.
The main difference between reimburvanation and the currently existing system is a limited list of drugs for doctors that will be given to patients - from next year only drugs recommended by the Cabinet of Ministers will be issued.
The list of medicines will be compiled at the beginning of the year, it is assumed that there will be 22 drugs in it, and this list will not be revised during the year.
Several years ago a similar program was already introduced for patients suffering from hypertension, who prescribed a prescription, and a drug was given for him at the pharmacy. For all issued drugs pharmacy received compensation.
Next year, the local pharmacies will be compensated by local health departments. According to the former head of the Ministry of Health Oleg Musia, and now a member of the Health Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, the new principle of dispensing drugs to chronic patients will bring our country closer to insurance medicine.
Now the program of re-imputation is still being finalized, Alexander Yabchanka, an expert from the BP on the reanimation package of reforms, noted that now it is not known which drugs will be given to patients, and which pharmacies will participate in the program, and in order to avoid various manipulations, it is better to recommend the active substance, medicine.
The question of switching to cheap analogues of foreign drugs remains an open question. In April this year, a similar program was launched for patients with diabetes who were recommended to switch to Ukrainian-made insulin, but many consider it less qualitative.
Yabchanka also expressed concerns about the sale of drugs, when pharmacies can give them on fictitious recipes and receive compensation for them, and then sell again at regular prices. In this case, a single patient register could help, but now there are not even approximate developments of this document.
According to Oleg Musiya, reimbursement will avoid corruption, since there will be no intermediaries between drug companies and patients.
But medicines will not be given to all patients free of charge, the Cabinet of Ministers noted that full or partial reimbursement of the cost of medicines will depend on the patient's social status. For example, it is planned to give drugs to veterans, Chernobyl victims and invalids for free, the discount will be made to children under 17 years old.
It is worth noting that in practice, patients encounter different unpleasant problems when they receive medication. According to the patients themselves, treatment of hypertension should be consistent, it is necessary to take certain drugs and they need to be selected individually. Often, no expensive analogues from domestic producers are completely ineffective.