Department of Pharmacy, Cheikh Zaid Hospital, Abulcasis University, Rabat, Morocco.
Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco.
Biomed Res Int. 2021 Oct 4;2021:6969333. doi: 10.1155/2021/6969333. eCollection 2021.
In 2014, the Ministry of Health of Morocco implemented a reform of medicine pricing that leads to lower prices. This reform has brought about a new method of pricing medicines and a reduction in the prices of more than 1,400 of the 5,000 medicines on the market. The objective of this study was to survey patients' perceptions of the impact of the reform on medicine prices and affordability of health care, including medicine.
Between September 2017 and September 2018, 360 patients that visited a community pharmacy in four selected areas of different socioeconomic levels were interviewed based on a questionnaire. Findings were studied through univariate and multivariate analyses.
Three hundred patients (83%) were included given their completed questionnaire. The majority (89%) of respondents considered medicine prices as a potential barrier to access to health care. Lower medicine prices following the reform were not perceived to have actually impacted respondents' spending on health care. In some cases, care was delayed, in particular by lower-income respondents and people without insurance and health coverage.
The majority of patients participating in the study did not perceive the decrease in medicine prices as sufficient. In addition, the study findings pointed to the relevance of further determinants of access to medicines, such as health insurance coverage. Patients think that the generalized third-party payment mode, which does not oblige patients to spend out of their pockets to have their treatment but rather their health insurance funds that will pay for them, provides optimal access to medicines.
2014 年，摩洛哥卫生部实施了药品定价改革，导致药品价格下降。这项改革带来了一种新的药品定价方法，并降低了市场上 5000 种药品中的 1400 多种药品的价格。本研究旨在调查患者对改革对药品价格和包括药品在内的医疗保健可负担性的影响的看法。
2017 年 9 月至 2018 年 9 月，对 4 个不同社会经济水平选定地区的社区药房的 360 名患者进行了问卷调查。通过单变量和多变量分析研究了调查结果。
由于完成了问卷调查，共有 300 名患者（83%）被纳入研究。大多数（89%）受访者认为药品价格是获得医疗保健的潜在障碍。改革后药品价格下降并没有被认为实际影响了受访者的医疗保健支出。在某些情况下，特别是低收入受访者、没有保险和医疗保险的人，会延迟治疗。
参与研究的大多数患者认为药品价格的降低并不足够。此外，研究结果还指出了获得药品的其他决定因素的相关性，如医疗保险覆盖范围。患者认为，全民第三方付费模式使他们能够最优地获得药品，而无需自掏腰包支付治疗费用，而是使用医疗保险资金支付。
