New list of reimbursed medicines will cut costs, but not as much as hoped

Health funds who were planning to take advantage of the new list of reimbursed medicines will manage to save only around zl. 450 million - zl. 500 million, not the zl. 750 million as announced by Health Minister Mariusz Lapinski. Earlier this year the Ministry estimated the savings from the reform could even be as high as zl. 1.2 billion. According to a newly published report prepared by Sequence HC Partners, in the first five months after the new list of reimbursed medicines was introduced, the health funds saved only zl. 203 million, with the financial burden being shifted across to patients. The report also estimated that the sum which will be saved in the period from April 2002 - April 2003 will not exceed zl. 500 million. Pharmaceutical companies are growing increasingly uneasy as news spreads that the money saved will be used to further restructure the pharmaceutical sector. According to pharmaceutical representatives the money was to be used on new medicines. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 5) J.K.