2023-09-20 12:45:17
Public spending on medicines continues to increase each year, mainly because of cancer treatments, underlines the Christian Mutuality on Wednesday. Thus, half of these expenses are devoted to cancer treatments, according to a mutual study carried out among its members.
Inami recently pointed out that public spending on medicines increased from year to year, mainly for medicines dispensed by hospital pharmacies, for patients going to hospital for treatment without having to spend the night there, explains the Christian mutuality. These include people going to a hospital for chemotherapy.
In order to better understand which medications were specifically responsible for this increase, which the Mutuality estimates at +227% between 2010 and 2022, the mutual analyzed the billing data of its members. It appears that half of the spending on medicines was devoted to anti-cancer treatments.
The increase in expenses is partly explained by the age of patients, with the Christian Mutuality having around 43% of members aged over 50. The mutual has calculated that for a patient aged 51 or over, annual costs increased from 587 euros in 2010 to 1,627 euros in 2022. Among those over 50, 61% received at least one reimbursement in 2022 for a treatment delivered in hospital without having to spend the night there.
“Investments are necessary in prevention to reduce the risk of cancer. We must do everything in our power to control health spending in our aging society,” points out Elisabeth Degryse, vice-president of the MC, quoted in a statement.
In addition, the ten most expensive molecules represent 43% of expenses, according to the Mutualité study. Six of them have only been reimbursed since 2016 while eight of the ten most expensive drugs “are temporarily reimbursed through an agreement between the minister and the pharmaceutical company in question, via ‘secret contracts'”, points out the Mutualité, according to which it is essential to work towards greater transparency on the cost of developing and manufacturing medicines.
“The money we spend on medicines is money we can no longer spend in other areas of health care. We need to assess which medicines have real added value to care. They provide the necessary quality of life following treatment? Do you actually live longer with it?” asks Elisabeth Degryse. “Too often, we still consider medications as a panacea,” she laments.
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