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E-mailA report released by the non-government Center for Legislative Development (CLD) has shown that the price cuts being implemented by the Department of Health (DOH) on medicines benefit the upper and middle class, but is still not enough for those at the lowest socioeconomic levels.
“The Filipino poor are so poor, price cuts would not result in greater access to medicines,” said the CLD.
Price cuts over the last few months have considerably lowered the cost of medicine, according to DoH National Center for Pharmaceutical Access and Management head Dr. Robert Louie So.
“In the past, some medicine brands like paracetamol cost as much as P22 per tablet,” he said. Today they are down to only 50 centavos.”
So added that his office’s “initiatives in bringing down the prices of medicines do not stop.”
However, according to the study conducted by the CLD on 600 people from urban poor communities in Metro Manila, many people continue to have little to no access to affordable medicine.
“[Although] the price ceiling on medicines was lowered considerably, the poor still find it difficult to buy the number and quality of drugs they need to cure or control their illnesses,” the study said. “Most of the poor can hardly avail of the medicines they need in the market no matter how cheap the generic medicines may be because of insufficiency of income.”
“Only 15 out of the 600 respondents were able to meet the complete amount of medicines they need, while the rest had insufficient access,” the report continued. “The numbers suggested that the lower the income, the lesser is their access to medicines and physicians.”
The DOH is currently working on another round of drug price cuts before President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term ends in June, said Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral.
Besides drug price cuts, the CLD report suggested the government investigate other means of making medicine available to the poor.
“If the government wishes to reach the poorest sector [of society], it may have to explore other means, like adopting a drug subsidy program for the poor, financed and administered by the National Health Insurance Program,” it said.
It also suggested that the state-run Philhealth Insurance Corporation “could be an instrument by expanding its coverage to include medicines for the poor.”
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