A crisis in the healthcare system is unfolding. Seniors may lose access to free medications, prompting a response from the Ministry.
Janusz Cieszyński, a former Deputy Minister of Health in the PiS government, has revealed a letter sent by the Ministry of Health to the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System, addressing potential changes to the list of free medications for seniors.
Free Medications at Risk?
Since September 2023, seniors aged 65 and over have been eligible for free medications. The list includes more than 4,000 items, representing the majority of all reimbursed drugs. These medications are available only by prescription.
However, the document suggests that the proposed adjustments could effectively amount to cuts in the list of medications.
“The anticipated and considered mechanisms for modifying the list could include, among others, the exclusion from the free list of an active substance or a group of products within a given active substance, for which the patient co-payment is minimal or for which the number of reimbursed packages is sufficiently high to generate a significant impact on the public payer’s budget,”
the letter states.
“Cuts to the list of free medications for seniors would be a disastrous decision, particularly as they would affect the poorest patients, for whom ‘symbolic’ fees, as described by officials, constitute a real burden on household budgets,”
Cieszyński argues.
He acknowledges that the list should be reviewed, but he insists that all types of medications should remain available.
The Ministry of Health denies that any cuts are planned and maintains that spending on the program is, in fact, being increased. The ministry admits that the list is under review, but emphasizes that no final decisions have been made.