TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has expressed support for the imposition of prescription charges on medical cards.
The State, he said, had to deal with rising drug costs, with the number of prescriptions written having increased by 22 million since 2003.
His comments followed the revelation by Minister for Health Mary Harney on Sunday that she was considering imposing a 50 cent charge on each item prescribed to medical card holders in the budget. This was to raise money and to discourage over-prescribing and the overuse of medication.
While many groups support cutting the annual drugs bill, which is expected to reach €3 billion next year, concern has been expressed at the way Ms Harney is going about it.
Dr Mel Bates of the Irish College of General Practitioners said a 50 cent charge did not appear too high, but his concern was that it might deter some medical card holders from using medicines they needed. “It’s untested in the Irish population. It could save a lot, but if people stopped taking medicines they needed it could cause more health problems.”
He noted that if it were like the levy on plastic bags the move could change behaviour significantly. However, the manner in which behaviour would change remained an unknown.
Dr Bates agreed there were issues over patients being on medication they may no longer need but said reviewing patient charts was labour-intensive for doctors, who were already busy dealing with swine flu and other issues.
The Irish Pharmacy Union urged caution in any attempt to introduce a prescription charge. It said consideration must be given to various issues, such as whether certain patient groups or those suffering from particular medical conditions would be exempted from this charge before any changes could be implemented.
The Irish Medical Organisation, which represents doctors at all levels, has put forward alternative plans, such as using more generic drugs and tackling the cost of generic drugs in Ireland, to achieve €300 million in drugs savings. It too fears a prescription charge might stop some people taking the drugs they need.
The Irish Senior Citizens’ Parliament said it was concerned the proposed charge would place an increased financial burden on older people, who have a greater need for prescriptions.
“The Minister’s response is not a remedy for the over-prescribing of drugs that can only be resolved by those responsible for writing prescriptions.”
Fine Gael and Labour have also objected to Ms Harney’s plan.
Paddy Burke, head of the HSE’s primary care reimbursement service, said 10 million items were prescribed in 1983 when the same numbers had medical cards, but this would rise to about 60 million items next year. The HSE had to work with doctors as there were safety and cost issues involved.