This news, which we were afraid of, was achieved in a “convincing” way, and it will inevitably be “in installments.” The decision to raise the entirety will not come at once, but will be in parts to absorb the patients’ anger and denunciation. A suspicious timing, 48 hours before the elections, and while everyone is busy protecting her, the decision to lift subsidies for some cancer drugs was passed silently… It is a crime bombed.
Since the beginning of the discontinuation of medicines and the successive decrease in their support, it was expected that the support that everyone avoids adopting, despite knowing that we have reached this stage, will inevitably be lifted. Postponement and “prosthetic” solutions were only to buy time so that people would gradually prepare. This systematic method has proven successful with the Lebanese, because adaptation has become an attribute of the majority, which contented itself with objecting without any movement against the authority in the recent period..
In one of the tweets, Hussein talks about his pain by saying: “My wife’s treatment bill has risen from 7 million to 40 million per session. If the subsidy for these medicines is lifted, there will be a disaster for the Lebanese citizen.” Low support, and the Central Bank was unable to maintain financing.
For example medicine Femara The price of 70 thousand pounds has become one million and 200 thousand, medicine Femaplex 2.5mg Its price was 40 thousand, and today it is 698 thousand pounds. As for medicine Imatinib elea whose price was 450 thousand, today it is about 8 million pounds.
The same goes for medication ACCESS whose price was between 150 and 200 thousand, and today it has become about 4 million pounds, and the list goes on for cancer drugs that have an alternative, while the main subsidy remains on drugs that have no alternative..
Thus, it appears that the lifting of the subsidy affected some cancer drugs that have generic or more than one brand, and the cheapest ones were kept, while the subsidy was lifted from the most expensive to rationalize the drug.
Joe Salloum, head of the Pharmacists Syndicate, confirms that “subsidies have been lifted for some cancer drugs that are in the form of pills, not cancer drugs.”injectable In hospitals, they have Lebanese alternatives. However, it is true that the lifting obtained some cancer drugs, and we hope not to prejudice the support for any drug related to cancer patients. This situation affects us as a human being and his dignity, and the patient’s pain and fear suffices, especially in the difficult circumstances he is experiencing as a result of the financial crisis and the interruption of medicines.”
The $35 million allocated is for the most urgent drugs, and therefore is not enough to cover the cost of all cancer drugs. According to Salloum, “The budget of the Ministry of Health was about $110 million to cover the cost of cancer drugs that it distributes free of charge, and this amount has nothing to do with the drugs sold in pharmacies. This means that the amount allocated for these drugs is not enough to cover the needs of patients and the Lebanese market.”
Despite Al-Naqeeb’s assertion that the issue of “cancer drugs is a red line and pertains to the national conscience, and we will not allow subsidies to be removed completely,” the reality indicates the opposite. What was rumored about the impossibility of lifting subsidies for this category of drugs shows that the decision was taken to lift the subsidies on some of them, and the fear of lifting them completely after the elections..
The Minister of Health, Firas Al-Abyad, explained in a dialogue session with journalists that “the ministry is working to rationalize the funds allocated to support medicine and medical supplies, which amount to thirty-five million dollars per month, according to the adoption of some measures that would provide liquidity to import expensive cancer drugs, and continue to support them.” complete, and to ensure its availability.
However, it has become clear that the efforts made are temporary, and this means that the crisis will be partially resolved before we return to the zero point in the interruption and unavailability of medicines..
It is clear that these funds are not sufficient to cover the needs, and as the minister said, “We appealed to everyone to resolve the issue because securing funds is not the responsibility of the Ministry of Health, but the responsibility of everyone, especially those concerned with financial affairs in the country.” But in the end, only the patient pays the price, either by paying his medication, which has become equivalent to a salary, or by giving up treatment..
The head of the National Health Authority “Health is a Right and Dignity”, Dr. Ismail Sukkarieh, was expecting this step, and it was he who had repeatedly warned against it in previous conversations. In his opinion, “It is inevitable that the total subsidy for medicines will be lifted, and I expected this since the beginning of the drug crisis and its interruption as a result of blackmailing traders with collusion with the Central Bank and question marks on some departments and secrets of the ministry. There was no responsible action from the Parliamentary Health Committee nor the former pharmacists’ unions (in the past). ), nor the Ministry of Health at the time, who turned into a mere echo, while the drug mafia runs the entire game.”
The decree, signed by the former Minister of Health, Hamad Hassan, to reduce subsidies, was completed with the minister, and it was expected that the subsidy would be lifted after the new year, and therefore Sukkarieh believes that “what is happening today is a process of pressure and blackmail to lift the subsidy completely by 100 percent. We are in front of a terrifying movie because this Medicines are an alternative that is not always available, and even some alternatives are not easy to talk about in the absence of a central laboratory to know the quality and quality of those medicines.”
This reality is the price we pay today after the performance and decisions of the previous ministries, and Sukkarieh confirms that she “twice rejected foreign offers, including the Swedish offer to sell medicines from state to state that helps save 50 percent of the cost of prices, but these offers were rejected because the drug mafia wants to keep On the margins of profits from importing medicines.
The head of the “Barbara Nassar” Association, Hani Nassar, explains that “the removal of subsidies for cancer medicines completely is not true, and it is false news and is exploited by some for electoral interests. What happened is that the Ministry of Health decided to lift the subsidy for cancer medicines that have a generic, as the support remained for two of a particular drug (they are the cheapest) while the subsidy for the rest of the drugs for the same drug has been lifted.Therefore, the two drugs with the lowest price in the low-cost cancer drug category continue to be subsidized..
He addresses the hospitals that have started to raise prices insanely, saying: “In some hospitals we used to pay about 5-6 million pounds for half a day in exchange for suspending the serum, regardless of the type of medicine. Today some hospitals ask for 12-15 million pounds under the pretext of lifting subsidies. Therefore, it was not raised. Subsidy for all cancer drugs, in every cancer drug, there is one part that has been removed and another that is still supported..”
Nassar appeals to the Ministry of Health: “Because most of the cancer drugs were not present when they were there, we hope that this decision will speed up the import of drugs into Lebanon.”
This step will obviously raise the most dangerous question: How many patients have to give up the idea of their treatment because they are unable to pay for it? Crime reveals its face, and health is its first victim!