Experts say list of compensated medicines must be changed in Moldova

Chisinau, 19 July /MOLDPRES/ - The list of compensated medicines must exclude the preparations which are not found on the native market and emphasis is put on the compensation of vital medicines for more groups of diseases, especially rare ones. These are the main conclusions of a study titled, Accessibility to medicines through light of list of compensated medicines, discussed by representatives of public authorities and civil society today.   

Experts from the Centre for Policies and Analyses in Health (PAS Centre), who are the study’s authors, consider that it is necessary to set a more efficient communication with the family physicians and a clearer and easier mechanism of identification and prescription of compensated medicines in episodic cases, so that physicians are sure of their actions and errors are voided.   

The PAS Centre’s director, Stela Bivol, has said that there was a paradox as to the accessibility to medicines: on the one hand, the residents’ pocket spending increased from 67 to 74 per cent, on the other hand, the public expenses for ensuring medicines are increasing. 

According to a an opinion poll carried out within the study, most respondents show contended that they save money, because they benefit from compensated medicines, but they bear additional costs for related chronic diseases, the treatment of which is not compensated.

Among the difficulties of buying compensated medication, respondents invoke: lack of drug stores in small settlements, absence or insufficiency of compensated medicines in drug stores from smaller villages/towns, lack of medicines in warehouses, incorrectly filled in recipe, package which does not meet the quantity of medicines prescribed, etc.   

The state general secretary at the Health, Labour and Social Protection Ministry,  Boris Gilca, said that the list of compensated medicines must be revised each 2-3 months, so that the treatment with medicines is more efficient.

The compensated medicines are the preparations which are partially or fully paid by the National Health Insurances Company (CNAM). In 2017, Moldova’s pharmaceutical market was estimated at 2.7 billion lei and the quantity of medication bought through public procurement was of 451.2 million lei in the same year. At the same time, the expenses for compensated medicines from the mandatory health insurances accounts stood at 523.9 million lei. The analysis of these publicly reported figures shows that about 1.7 billion lei would represent the residents’ pocket expenses for purchasing medicines through the network of community drug stores.   

The study was carried out within the project, Enhancement of residents’ access to medicines, implemented by the PAS Centre, with the financial support of the Soros-Moldova Foundation.