According to MoH estimates, Ukrainians annually spend about 60 billion UAH on medicines, and more than 50% of them come from medicines without proven efficacy and unjustified prescriptions.
There are drugs that are not included in the “Affordable Drugs” program and their cost is not reimbursed under the reimbursement program. Voluntary pharmaceutical insurance will provide an opportunity to reimburse their cost.
How do I get pharmaceutical insurance?
In health care facilities in Rivne, Sumy, Zaporizhzhya, Odessa, Kharkiv and Kyiv, doctors already have access to the pharmaceutical insurance system. In order to participate in the project, a patient must purchase an insurance policy and notify his/her doctor. The patient will pay 120 UAH per month and will be able to use the insurance amount of 20 thousand UAH in case of prescription of medicines that are not included in the program “Affordable medicines” and the cost of which is not reimbursed under the reimbursement program.
In order to get a drug from the insurance in case of illness, the patient goes to the doctor, is examined and receives a prescription for the drug. The drugs covered by the pharmaceutical insurance program are automatically reserved at the pharmacy. The patient receives a message with information about the pharmacy where the medication can be picked up. Payment for the medication by the insurance company is made automatically, without involving the patient or physician. The project is monitored and prescriptions are written only for international non-commercial drug names (INN). The choice of trade name is automated and operates on the principle of availability and price. The conditions of the project make it impossible to prescribe a drug not covered by clinical protocols.
To implement this project, the Ministry of Health, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Health of the Nation, Medical Care and Health Insurance, the National Association of Insurers of Ukraine, the League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine, the Association “Insurance Business”, as well as JSC “PrivatBank” concluded a memorandum of cooperation in the field of voluntary medical insurance of the population’s expenses related to the provision of medicines and medical devices.
Regarding pharmacies, the MOH explained that the reimbursement principle would be similar to Affordable Drugs.
