E-drug: UK co-payment schemes
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Further to David Gilbert's posting:
I would agree with David's analysis, and with the need for explicit
publicly accountable rationing.
To expand further on the co-payment issue, I think it's worth
mentioning, as David has pointed out himself elsewhere, that
co-payments represent important new marketing opportunities for
industry.
Non-exempt patients already pay a fixed charge of GBP 5.90 ca.
(approx $US 9.50) per prescribed item but this is fixed regardless of
the cost of the item dispensed. As soon as UK patients begin making
extra contributions for the drugs the state decides it won't pay for,
they will necessarily become a more important target for promotion.
And the logic of increased direct to consumer marketing will become
more powerful.
David is right. There is a certain inevitability about the introduction of
co-payments for our cash-strapped National Health Service (allowing
private prescriptions for Viagra is effectively this) but it also drives a
wedge into the founding principles of the NHS. Sure, the Govt may
have to pull out of its responsibility for treating certain conditions on
the NHS. But how does it reinforce the best bits of our (relatively)
efficient tax-funded system so that people will be treated according to
their need, not their ability to pay?
Philip Taylor
(in a personal capacity)
Health Which? magazine
Consumers' Association
London
e-mail: TaylorP@which.co.uk
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