The money that the citizens will pay for compensated drugs as of November 1 will decrease by 40% for the total list of medicines, while the number of medicines offered free out of the compensated ones will grow by 30%. “At the moment, for example, out of 655 commercial names we will offer free 266 to 406 types of drugs. Moreover, for the medicines that are cheaper now, based on the new formula, the patient will not pay anything,” Minister of Health Ala Nemerenco stated in an interview for RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service, being quoted by IPN.

According to the minister, the rather difficult calculation methodology used so far was based on two small methodologies. It was hard for drugstores too to keep a record of these medicines. One compensation ceiling is introduced by the new methodology. Only the fixed compensation sum will be taken into account. It goes to the more efficient use of the insurance funds that cover essential medicines for patients. The medicines used to treat such common illnesses as cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, bronchial asthma and lung diseases will be compensated to the greatest extent.

“We didn’t ask for additional allocations and didn’t increase the annual budget. We made moves to increase the compensation sum by using the money that remained available and wasn’t used to compensate some of the medicines during the past nine months,” stated Ala Nemerenco.

Asked who will explain to the patients which drugs are compensated and how much, the minister said the persons will immediately realize how things work at the drugstore as these are medicines that they have been using for years for treating chronic diseases. After November 1, they will not pay anything for some of the compensated drugs or will pay a part of the price, with the sum being three-four times lower than before November 1.