Costa Ricans Fear Medicine Cuts
Medicines received through Caja
Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS)
- Social Security - may be cut as a result
of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the
United States, warn experts.
Key regulations set in the agreement spark a
rise in prices for drugs and the CCSS lacks
conditions to confront this situation that
harms the population, specialists of the
Universidad Nacional (UN) explained.
Researcher Greivin Hernandez considers that
legal measures should be adopted to
alleviate CCSS expenditures that include
regulation of medicine prices.
According to the specialist the Trade
Agreement on Issues of Intellectual Property
Rights Related to Trade implies a high cost
for CCSS.
A study by the Centro Internacional de
Política Económica para el Desarrollo
(Cinpe-UNA) confirms that due to previous
reasons budget scenarios of CCSS are
unfavorable ad by 2030 it will have paid
almost 40 percent higher prices in relation
to the present.
With a greater quantity of exclusive
medicines, by legal monopoly or de facto,
prices could increase by 40 percent, he
explained.
If the CCSS lacks the means to confront this
expenditure it would have to reduce
distribution by 14 to 24 percent according
to different scenarios warns Cinpe-UNA.
Effects on local industry of medicines were
also evaluated and sales could go from 35
percent to 24 or 27 percent in the coming
years with millions in reductions of yearly
incomes from this sector.
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