Finance Ministry backs €5 million to cover reimbursed medicines shortfall

Latvia's Finance Ministry (FM) supports a draft government order, prepared by the Health Ministry (VM), that would direct €5 million from the state budget programme "Funds for Unforeseen Circumstances" toward partly covering this year's deficit in spending on reimbursed medicines. The money would go to the National Health Service and is meant to keep medicinal treatment uninterrupted. The draft still has to be considered by the government.

The FM approved the draft with proposals on 14 October. It does not object to the draft moving forward, provided that a revised version and annotation are submitted to the government.

Two million from the Health Ministry's budget

The Health Ministry also plans to reallocate another €2 million from funds it expects to leave unspent this year on two priority measures. A total of €1,704,690 would come from money earmarked for an additional staff member in family doctors' practices, and €295,310 from funding for the operation of methodological centres. The ministry intends to prepare a separate draft order for the government on this reallocation.

Size of the shortfall

The Health Ministry originally proposed allocating €10 million from contingency funds. As of 9 October, the funding available for reimbursed medicines and materials, including planned reallocations, is €330.5 million, while total spending this year is forecast at €363.3 million. The gap is roughly €32.7 million, so the proposed extra money would cover it only in part.

Why costs are rising

The ministry says the need for funding is growing because the number of people receiving reimbursed medicines is increasing as the population ages, and because the average cost per prescription is rising. In July this year, the average price of reimbursed medicines on a single prescription was €43.59, compared with €39.42 in July last year, an increase of 10.6% over the year.

The reimbursed medicines system lets patients receive treatment for chronic, severe and life-threatening illnesses. The Health Ministry notes that the funding available for it has for years been lower than what is actually needed, which increases the burden of patient co-payments, limits access to treatment and puts its continuity at risk.