The sustainability of medicines in public spending

Fedaisf editorial staff

September 30, 2014

Current Italian public health expenditure is among the lowest in Europe. There pharmaceutical expense is continuously declining, in 2013 equal to 7% of global public health expenditure. is on the rise sharing expense of citizens.

Written by Alessandra and inserted in Salute on 09/30/14

The I agree HEAR held in Ivrea was an opportunity to make a point on the sustainability of medicines in Italian public spending. The cardiologist and professor Francesco Vittorio Costa spoke on the subject, commenting on the data, which see the current Italian public health expenditure among the lowest in Europe, in 2012 it was equal to 7% of GDP, against 9% in France and 8.7% in Germany. There pharmaceutical expense is continuously declining, in 2013 equal to 7% of global public health expenditure. It is surprising that Germany, a European welfare model, has much higher pharmaceutical expenditure than in Italy, however it must be borne in mind that in Germany there is a high percentage of prescriptions for generic drugs which cost more than in Italy .
Public pharmaceutical expenditure is decreasing but the sharing expense of citizens: from 0.98 billion in 2010 to 1.44 billion in 2013.

As far as cardiovascular pathologies are concerned, the cost of drugs is a secondary item because what costs are the events that lead to hospitalizations. Hospital costs account for 73% of total coronary heart disease costs, 94% of stroke costs, and approximately 80% of heart failure costs. The benefits of one constant therapy they certainly help in the success of the treatment. It is therefore necessary to reverse course and think of drugs as a useful investment to reduce future expenses, such as hospital expenses, but above all, to improve the health of patients, which is possible with prevention.