The solidarity program helped the state save 24 million euros on emergencies and hospitalizations

The “Abem:” program, which guarantees access to medicines prescribed by a doctor to those without financial resources, has saved the state 24 million euros since 2016 in emergencies and hospitalizations alone, according to a study this Thursday.

The abem Social Impact Assessment Study: Drug Solidarity Network, published this Thursday at the Territorial Cohesion and Health: The Importance of Networking conference promoted by Associação Dignitude, says that since 2016, with an investment of 7.5 million euros is estimated to have saved about 1.8 million euros in emergency cases, about 1.3 million euros in hospitalization of patients with asthma / pneumonia, 12.9 million euros in hospitalization of the mentally ill.

Nearly 5.4 million euros will be saved on hospitalization of patients with acute myocardial infarction and 2.7 million euros on the treatment of type 1 diabetes (considering only four specialties covered by reimbursed medicines and for which there is data on hospital costs, which represent 78.1% contribution by abem :), advances a study that analyzes the period between 2016, when the program was applied in the field, and December 2022.

“What we were able to understand is that from May 2016 to December 2022 we invested €7.5 million in drug reimbursement for our beneficiaries and thanks to this we managed to save €24 million for the National Health Service hospitalizations and urgency were avoided and therefore these are big numbers that somehow confirm what we already understood that this is the impact that the Program also has on the National Health Service,” he told Lusa this Thursday. , Executive Director of the Dignitude Association. , Maria Joao Toscano.

The official highlighted the impact of this program on its beneficiaries in terms of health, quality of life and inclusion, given that the model involves the use of a card that allows the user to go to a network pharmacy and access their medicines with medical assistance. recipe.

Maria João Toscano stressed the importance of the program in the face of impoverishment of families caused by inflation, rising interest rates and rising costs of living, adding that this reality is confirmed by the Sustainable Health Index (Abbvie/Nova IMS, 2022), which indicates that one in ten the Portuguese does not have access to the necessary medicines due to economic inability. “We are talking about a million people,” he explained.

According to the person in charge, for every million euros invested in the program, the potential savings for SNS is four million euros.

“And we don’t think about very important things here, like people’s health, fighting their diseases,” he added, noting that many of these people, when they get sick and cannot access medicine, end up missing work or, in the case of children, to school, “putting their future at risk”.

The program supports more than 31,000 people, of which more than half (57%) are aged 18 to 64, 32% are aged 65 and over, and 11% are children.

“Most of the beneficiaries are active people. Therefore, we are talking about something very complex, because this is an urgent social problem, and this should be looked at from the point of view of giving dignity to those people who, while working, are not able to pay their expenses, ”he said, showing that more and more people are applying for this support.

Funding for the program comes from donations to the Solidarity Fund, which receives donations from civil society, partners and companies. Funds from this fund are used in full to pay for medicines [paga a parte do utente].

It is present in 177 councils throughout the country and it is through a network of local organizations (IPSS, Caritas, Misericordia, municipalities) that the families to be included in the program are determined.

Covering 1,156 pharmacies, it reaches “a large percentage of the population, reducing disparities across regions and promoting more equitable access to medicines.”