100 percent prescription drug reimbursement for people whose annual income is less than 14 times the minimum wage is one of the BE ballot proposals in the next legislative election, to be unveiled this Saturday.
In anticipation of the Lusa agency, the leader and head of the BE list for Aveiro for the March 10 elections, Moisés Ferreira, explained that one of the priorities of the electoral program “is access to the National Health Service”, a vector in which it fits. This measure aims to to “ensure that all people have access to the treatments prescribed to them by their doctors.”
This will be one of the proposals included in the BE’s electoral program, which will be approved this Saturday by the Party’s National Council and presented this afternoon by party coordinator Mariana Mortagua at a meeting at the Talia Theater in Lisbon.
On social media, the bloc leader said the party will present its program for the country to “do what has never been done”, that is, “homes to live in, decent wages, quality healthcare and schools, time to live and climate justice.”
According to Moisés Ferreira, research shows that “one in ten people say they have not bought prescribed medicines because they lacked money,” and this percentage increases significantly for people with lower incomes, a level at which one in two admitted, according to data from 2022 admitted “that he did not purchase a certain prescribed medication due to lack of money.”
“This is a problem that needs to be solved. People must have access to the medications they are prescribed, to the treatments they need to manage their illnesses, which are often chronic,” he said.
BE is therefore proposing in its election platform that people with an annual income of less than 14 months of the National Minimum Wage should have 100% contribution towards the purchase of prescribed medicines, “to ensure that all the people who need them have access to the medicines they need.”
Another of the blocker proposals is Level A reimbursement, equivalent to 90%, for “all drugs prescribed to people with chronic diseases or multiple pathologies, without compromising more favorable special and exceptional regimens.”
“We want everyone to have access to healthcare, and this also means access to medicines prescribed by doctors,” the blocker concluded.
When asked what the 100% contribution measure would cover, Moisés Ferreira explained that “for now it will cover the vast majority of people with pensions and those with social support.”
Regarding cost projections, the BE director said these are measures that, if not guaranteed now, “will cost much more in the future.”
“100 per cent participation will increase NHS spending on medicines in the short term, but will significantly reduce health complications, which will then also be borne by the NHS,” he said, arguing that Portuguese people need to have access to healthcare in order to health was “balanced, controlled and guaranteed.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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