FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
For at least 3 years, the state budget has been paying a heavy cost of corruption because the Ministry of Health has blocked the list of reimbursable drugs.
Although the law on drugs obliges the Mandatory Health Care Insurance Fund to compile a new list of reimbursable drugs every year, the list has not been approved for 3 years.
The last list of drugs was approved in 2021, before the pandemic. As a result, the budget reimburses drugs on the basis of the list of 3 years ago, even though new more efficient alternatives have entered the market in the treatment of diseases, but also at a lower cost.
Although all this looks like an ordinary bureaucratic negligence, in fact the blocking of the list is a big corrupt business with a cost of millions of euros for the state budget and other extraordinary health costs for citizens who are denied access to new alternatives.
Corruption figures
Blocking the list is not an innocent diversion, but much more than that. It is enough to take only one example, although there are dozens of such. Xarelto is an anticoagulant medication, which is used to treat cardiovascular disease. The generic name of this drug is Rivaroxaban and it is registered by the Bayer company.
But in the last two years, some alternative drugs have entered the market, which treat the same disease, but at a cost several times lower than Xarelto. From not being included in the reimbursement list of these new alternatives, from this bar alone the state budget has a loss of at least 7.5 million euros for three years, which comes directly as a result of the difference in price.
Currently, Xarelto 15 and 20 milligrams is reimbursed at 35.44 euros per box, while the cheapest price of one of the alternatives entered the market recently is 14.2 euros. If the 8 percent margin set by the state for traders is taken into account, the difference is even deeper.
The Mandatory Health Care Insurance Fund reimburses about 100,000 boxes of Xarelto every year, which means that the budget loses at least 2.5 million euros every year from Xarelto alone.
The madness continues
The approval of the drug list was held hostage for two years by former minister Ogerta Manastirliu. But the madness continues and the list of reimbursable drugs continues to be disapproved.
The tentacles that made Manastirli "forget" for two years the approval of the list of drugs have apparently managed to compromise the new Minister of Health, Albana Koçiu. In the case of Xarelton, 7.5 million euros were stolen from citizens in three years. This money has been unfairly benefited by the company that has the exclusive right to trade this drug in Albania, Delta Pharma. But there are dozens of medications, also from other companies, which are not updated.
But as these earn money unjustly and perhaps share it with the officials who block the list of warrants, citizens do not only pay the cost of corruption. List blocking has a cost perhaps even greater than the money being stolen. It is the health cost, which comes from the non-inclusion in the list of new drugs, especially oncological ones, for which Albania has an emergency shortage.
An example that illustrates better than in Albania, corruption kills and people's lives are sacrificed for the stinking millions of pharmaceutical companies and high health officials. Meanwhile, SPAK remains ..../Capital
Lini një Përgjigje