Many in the European Union are denied their right to preventative healthcare and to access essential medicines. This is not a new problem, but it is becoming more acute due to the increasingly high cost of medicines and shrinking public health budgets. Only last year the situation of Hepatitis patients not being able to pay for new innovative treatments that could save their lives showed the need for strong political action.
Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament have adopted recommendations to find ways of overcoming obstacles and reducing inequalities in access to medicines and treatments for patients.
They want the EU institutions to look into the focus areas of pharmaceutical research, supply systems, financing mechanisms, pricing, reimbursement and cost-containment policies of individual countries, as well patenting rules, which are often too rigid. All these factors should be properly analysed.
S&D MEP Soledad Cabezón, who will be the author of a parliamentary report on Access to Medicines, said:
“The right to health care is crucial in the social Europe that we as Social Democrats want to continue to build, and citizens are asking for.
“Access to medicines, and in particular innovation, should not be a source of inequality in our society.
“The EU must show leadership in facing this important social challenge: from the coordination of policies monitoring the safety, efficiency, quality and accessibility of medicines to the promotion of priority research and the necessary transparency and independence of all parties.”
S&D spokesperson on public health Matthias Groote:
“Everyone has a right to good healthcare, so it is vital that medicines are available in the EU to all citizens at a fair, equitable and affordable price.
“With Europe’s ageing population this problem is getting worse. Member states should ensure that a sufficient portion of their budgets is dedicated to the health and well-being of their citizens. The European Union can do more. This is why we want to make sure that it makes good use of the instruments available to its institutions without undermining the competence of member states.
“The upcoming European Parliament report is a crucial step towards better and affordable access to medicines in Europe. This is especially important in the area of medicines for rare diseases where we currently face huge discrepancies across member states and where the European Medicines Agency will play a key role.”
See the S&D Position Paper here.
