Spanish Offensive On Pensioners' Drug Spending

The Spanish drug industry association Farmaindustria and the Ministry of Health are in a coincidental alliance of concern over the level of drug costs generated by pensioners, who reportedly represent 74% of drug sales while standing at only 24% of the insured population. Drug spending generally has risen 130% in the past seven years and, with economies pending, Farmaindustria is concerned that they are not applied at its expense. It says that under existing agreements with the government, it has paid 65 billion pesetas ($516.6 million) in the last two years in various taxes.

The companies say they account for 53% of a drug price, leaving 47% from which, says Farmaindustria vice president Enrique Gonzales Hervada, the wholesalers, pharmacists and Treasury benefit. He estimates that the wholesalers and pharmacists between them get 29.9% of the drug price and pensioners get their drugs free. Therefore, he says, if the government is to contain drug spending growth effectively to around 6% a year, it must to tackle "all the social agents involved in this expenditure." Farmaindustria president Rafael Juste adds that the health service's viability is not solely related to drug costs, since these account for only 20% of the total.

This assessment of the situation matches the Health Ministry's, which says that in 1995 pensioners consumed drugs worth 538.40 billion pesetas against 179.66 billion pesetas for "active workers." Farmaindustria says the average cost of each pensioner prescription is 12% higher than for an employed person, and that this level rose 7.3% in first-half 1996 compared with 2.9% for employed workers. The number of prescriptions per pensioner per month in first-half 1996 rose 3.2%.