Print
E-mailMary Harney's success in cutting the trade price on 300 commonly used medicines by 40% will save the taxpayer around €90m and deserves to be commended.
It's true we paid well over the odds for too long for these drugs compared with other countries, but at the same time, the fact that officials drove the price down is a big plus.
But unfortunately, people without medical cards won't benefit as much as they should because now the chemists are going to rip us off instead of the drug companies.
Rather than pass on the savings, many are charging the old price and pocketing the profit.
There are no regulations which can force chemists to drive down prices because competition law won't allow it. They can charge what the market will allow. So consumers must vote with their feet.
The Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, the drug companies' trade body, has put the names and prices of the 300 medicines and their new prices on the website www.checkthelist.ie.
Knowing how much your pharmacy should charge is the first step in boycotting those who rip you off. The power is with you, not your chemist.
del.icio.us
digg
Facebook
Google
Where is your evidence for the statement "now the chemists are going to rip us off instead of the drug companies." Could it be that you are relying on an article in The Daily Mail? An article which confused the 40% reduction in cost price of some medicines ( which 14 of the 15 pharmacies surveyed had passed on IN FULL ) with the demand from the HSE that pharmacies charge 20% markup on medicines bought by the public, instead of the current 50%? A demand that any business person would know is unsustainable? Will anybody listen to the truth? Is HSE spin now accepted as truth without any sort of investigation? These are the FACTS - The HSE pays pharmacists no mark-up on GMS prescriptions. None whatsoever. They pay a fee which averages out at around 3 euro 75cent per item. GMS prescriptions account for approximately three quarters of the average pharmacist's business and we are paid no markup. And since last July the HSE pays us only 93.2% of the cost price to claw back any bonus we might be getting from our suppliers. The other one quarter of our business is paid for by the public and by the HSE as part of the Drug Payment Scheme. I charge 50% markup on those prescriptions, in other words if I pay my supplier 20 euro for the drugs, then I add 10 euro profit. The HSE has decided that it will only pay 20% profit on it's contribution to the Drug Payments Scheme and it's now trying to force me to charge 20% profit on all non GMS prescriptions. Ask yourself please - what business could survive with no markup on 75% of it's work and 20% markup on the rest, and with all bonuses from the suppliers clawed back by the HSE? It's simply not possible. one final point - one of the drugs listed on the IPHA website is lipostat - I think the maunufacturer says it should be selling for around 20 euro, and that's based on a cost price agreed with the HSE and then 20% markup. I'm told that Lipostat sells in Northern Ireland pharmacies for under 4 euro. Now tell me who's ripping off the Irish public?