Health clarifies that Clavijo approved the free of drugs for pensioners only for 2019 - La Provincia
The Canary Government has not renewed the decree regulating the gratuity of medicines to pensioners with incomes below 18,000 euros per year through a grant that ended on December 31 Therefore, as of January 1, all these patients must pay the amount with the caps set by their health card.
A Health statement indicates that in the case of people with TSI 002-01, those affected by the decree, the contribution established is of a 10 percent of the price of the prescribed medications, with a maximum monthly contribution limit of 8.23 euros.
Add that lThe elimination of the pharmaceutical co-payment continues to be one of the objectives of the State, as included in the government agreement recently signed between the PSOE and United We, which insists on progressive elimination of copayment, as already formulated in the 2019 General State Budget Project.
The Ministry of Health indicates that in the case of not thriving this initiative at the national level, I would look for alternatives in the Canary Islands that do not entail damage for Canarian pensioners.
Decree 78/2019, of May 6, implied a subsidy corresponding only to 2019, without having specific financing and without arbitrating the budgetary credits necessary for its future sustainability.
Health indicates that in fact, its continuity in subsequent budgetary exercises was conditional on the need for monitoring and evaluation of the treatment adherence rates, without specifying what standards were needed to determine that continuity.
In that line, the decree based its convenience on what would mean an increase in adherence to treatments.
However, the Pharmacy Service of the General Directorate of Assistance Programs conducts a systematic analysis of the data, so that only the withdrawal of prescribed medications can be evaluated and not their actual use.
From these data it follows that, During 2019, there was an increase in dispensations of 6.45% among that sector of the population, but it cannot be concluded that this implies an increase in adhesion.
Add that in this way, The mandatory monitoring of the target group has not been complied with, in order to determine whether the subsidy was effectively fulfilling the objective of guaranteeing adherence to medical treatments of those with lower incomes.
